THE OTTOMAN 



THE SPANISH EMPIRES, 



IN THE 



SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 



BY 



LEOPOLD RANKE, 



TRANSLATED FROM THE LAST EDITION OF THE GERMAN, BY 

WALTER K. KELLY, ESQ. B.A. 

OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. 



LONDON: WHITTAKER AND CO., AVE MARIA LANE. 



MDCCCXLIII. 




i 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The History of the Popes, &c, which has already appeared in this series, constitutes in 
the original German the last three of four volumes, entitled, collectively, " Sovereigns and 
Nations of Southern Europe in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries." The first of 
these volumes comprises the two historical treatises which are now for the first time 
presented to the English reader. These will be found to be in every respect worthy of 
the industrious, conscientious, and judicious author of the first-named history. Whilst 
they possess a high intrinsic interest as substantive works, they must obviously be 
regarded also as in some degree necessary complements to the history of the Papacy. 
The relations between that power and the Most Catholic King in particular were so 
numerous and important in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that the political 
history of the latter becomes in fact an integrant and prominent part of that of the 
popes. 

To accommodate purchasers, a double title, general and specific, is given ; so that both 
divisions of the general subject may be bound together under a common title, or either 
may be had separately in the form of a distinct work. 



CONTENTS. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE Page 1 

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 
INTRODUCTION. 



PAGE 



Foundations of the Ottoman Power 5 

Digression respecting the modern Greeks in the Six- 
teenth Century 9 

On the decay of the Ottoman Power 11 

The Sultans 12 



1. Charles V. 

2. Philip IT... 



1. The Court and State of Charles V 37 

2. The first Ministry of Philip II 39 

3. Digression respecting Don John of Austria 43 

I. Castile 56 

The Nohles ib. 

The Towns 57 

Digression respecting the range of action of the later 

Cortes 58 

The Clergy 60 

New Constitution 61 

The Inquisition ib. 

II. Aragon 63 

Old Constitution ib. 

Revolution 64 

III. Sicily 65 

IV. Naples 67 

The Nobles and the Towns 68 

1. Under Charles V 84 

Income from America .. 88 

2. The Finances under Philip II 90 

1. Castile 98 

2. Catalonia 104 

3. Sicily, Milan, Naples 105 

Sicily ib. 



PAGE 



Viziers 15 

Military Forces 19 

Frontiers 21 

Posture of the Empire under Amurath IV 24 

Conclusion 26 



35 
36 



4. The second Ministry of Philip II 47 

5. Philip III. and Lerma 51 



The Clergy 69 

New Constitution 70 

Relation to the Pope ib. 

Functionaries, the Army, Revenues 71 

V. Milan 72 

The Senate 73 

The Archbishop 74 

The Communes 76 

VI. The Netherlands 78 

Monarchical Authority ib. 

Provincial Rights 79 

Balance of the Constitution 80 

Misunderstandings under Philip ib. 

The Troubles 81 

Administration of Castile 92 

3. Finances under Philip III 97 



Milan 106 

Naples 107 

4. The Netherlands 109 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 
INTRODUCTION. 

CHAPTER I. — Of the Kings. 

28 j 3. Philip III 

30 I Conclusion 

CHAPTER II.— Of the Court and the Ministers. 



CHAPTER III.— Of the Provinces and their Administration. 



CHAPTER IV.— Of the Taxes and the Finances. 



CHAPTER V.— National Circumstances. 



LIST OF THE MORE IMPORTANT MANUSCRIPTS CONSULTED FOR THIS WORK. 
Ottoman Empire 112 | The Spanish Empire ib. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 





There was a time when the power, and, in a great measure, the civilization of Europe, seemed to have 
their chief seat in the South ; a time when the Ottoman empire and the Spanish monarchy had grown 
up, face to face, to an overtopping greatness, dangerous to neighbouring and remote nations, and when i 
no literature in the world could compare with that of Italy. 

Another followed, in which the Spanish monarchy, far from asserting its force over friends or foes, j 
was rent and sub-divided by foreign politics, in which Italy, as well as Spain, was pervaded by a J 
civilization of no native growth ; and in which the Ottomans ceased to be feared, and began themselves i 
to fear. These changes, we know, constitute, in no small degree, the distinctive features that mark, j 
respectively, two periods in modern history. 

What then produced these changes ? How did they arise ? Was it through the loss of decisive I 
battles, or the invasion of foreign nations, or the stroke of inevitable disasters ? They were mainly the 
result of internal developments ; and these are what the present work proposes to investigate. As it 
contemplates the period filled by the vigour and seeming bloom of the two nations in question, from 
1540 to 1620, or thereabouts, it traces in the germ what succeeding times brought forth. 

It will, I think, be admitted, that even the more authentic and pains-taking works on the history of 
late ages, engrossed, as they are, with the events of political or religious strife, which occurred from day 
to-day, afford us but little information respecting the gradual revolution in the inward organization and 
economy of nations. Had I relied on these works only, I should never have accomplished my own, I 
imperfect as it is ; nay, I should never have undertaken it. But fortunately I found other aids, which 
afforded a more complete body of information ; aids, frequently, of extraordinary value, and yet still [ 
unknown, which it is a main object of this work to bring within the circle of general knowledge. I 
purpose going through them upon another occasion, singly and in detail ; still I think it necessary to 
give a general description of them in this place. 

If, after the numerous labours of able men, posterity still feels how short-coming are the historical 
works belonging to the period in question, this feeling must have been much more strongly experienced 
by contemporaries ; above all, by those who were called on to take an active part in public affairs. 
These men soon turned from printed works, in which comprehensiveness of range and fluency of expres- 
sion were the chief things aimed at, to manuscript documents of more veracity. We have essays 
recommending the formation and study of collections of this kind ; we have such collections themselves j 
in our possession. Among their contents the Venetian Relationi hold by far the most conspicuous 
place. 

Placed repeatedly in the midst between two parties, having relations not only of politics, but still more 
of trade and commerce with half the world, not strong enough to rest wholly on her own strength, and 
yet not so weak as to be obliged inactively to wait what should be done by others, Venice had occasion 
enough to turn her eyes in every direction, and to form connexions in every quarter. She frequently 
sent her most experienced and able citizens to foreign courts. Not content with the despatches on 
current affairs regularly sent home every fourteen days, she further required of her ambassadors, when 
they returned, after an absence of two or three years, that they should give a circumstantial account of 
the court and the country they had been visiting. This was delivered in the council of the Pregadi, 
before men who had grown old in the service of the state, and who had, perhaps, themselves discharged 
the self-same embassies, or might soon be called on to do so. The reporter laboured to pourtray the 
person and character of the sovereign to whom he had been accredited, his court and his ministers, the 
state of his finances, his military force, his whole administration, the temper and feeling of his subjects, 
and, lastly, his relations with other states in general, and with Venice in particular. He then laid at the 
feet of his Siguoria the present made him by the foreign potentate. Sometimes these reports were very 
minute, and occupied several evenings in the delivery : we can see how the reporter breaks off, when 
arrived at the end of some division of his subject, to take breath. Sometimes, at least in earlier times, 
they were delivered from memory : they are all interspersed with direct addresses to the Doge and the 
assembly : their style and matter every where shows the freshness of personal observation ; every man 
strove to do his utmost ; he had an audience worthy of a statesman. The Venetians are not unfrequent 
in their praises of this institution. " In this way we learn, respecting foreign states, what it is alike 
serviceable to know in peace, and when discord has broken out ; we can draw also from their measures I 
lessons for our own administration ; and the inexperienced are thus forearmed and prepared for public ' 



2 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



business. Whilst a scholar knows only the past, and a reconnoitrer can only communicate what is 
present, an ambassador, deriving credit from the importance of his country, and from his own, will 
easily make himself familiar with both, and be enabled to furnish satisfactory information." Others, 
on the contrary, not unfrequently found fault with the republic for this anatomy, as they called it, of 
foreign courts and states. They thought the Venetian ambassadors over-eager in prying into likings and 
dislikings, favour and disfavour, resources and designs of sovereigns, and far too liberal when the 
question was, how to discover secrets. Men who have taken an active part in business, and who have 
been personally privy to details, always possess a knowledge of existing things, and of the immediate 
past, of decisive positions and of ruling interests, which is hidden from the crowd, and which dies with 
themselves. The ambassadors of Venice gathered up no small stock of such knowledge in almost all the 
courts of Europe, for the behoof of their Signory. Their reports were inserted in the archives of the 
state. 

How rich must these archives have been ! A law, passed as early as 1268, enjoins the ambassadors to 
note down and communicate whatever they could observe, that might be interesting to the government. 
The word " Relatione" came into use after 1465. Giovanni Casa, speaking of a report made by Oaspar 
Contarini, in 1526, says, that it was delivered after the usage of their predecessors. The republic 
continued this practice to the last days of her existence, and there is still extant a report of the Venetian 
embassy touching the commencement of the French revolution, which is full of striking and impartial 
revelations. But these performances obtained most note at the period the regular embassies came in 
vogue, and when Venice was strong and respectable in the eyes of other powers, namely, in the sixteenth 
century : between 1530 and 1620, we find them sometimes made use of, frequently alluded to, and 
continually copied and communicated. They constituted the chief part of the politico-historical collec- 
tions we have spoken of. 

But these contained many other important pieces besides. Similar reports were likewise called for. at 
times, by the Pope, the King of Spain, and the Dukes of Ferrara and Florence. Ex-ambassadors drew 
up instructions, full of detailed information for their successors. High functionaries and governors of 
provinces were inducted into their offices by their predecessors, or by others possessed of the necessary 
knowledge. There was a multitude of letters in circulation. All things of this kind were stored up in 
the above-mentioned collections, to afford materials for a conception of the then existing world. For us 
that world is long gone by : we can easily see how a consecutive series of such reports would necessarily 
become for us direct history, and that, too, such a one as we are now looking for ; one that deals not so 
much with individual occurrences as with the general aspect and condition of things, and with the 
development of inherent principles. But doubly valuable must these collections have been for contem- 
poraries themselves : only the question presents itself, how could they have come into existence ? If, as 
we are assured, it was no very difficult matter to get hold of those same MSS., provided one spared 
neither money nor trouble, still, it may be asked, how did so singular a traffic in private state papers 
arise, and how did it become general ? 

We have some information on this point too. In the year 1557, Paul IV. bestowed the cardinal's hat 
on Vitellozzo, of the house of Vitelli, a house that, for a considerable while, had been mixed up in all 
Italian movements. Vitellozzo himself had long in his hands all the papers of the Caraffeschi, who 
thought to revolutionize all Italy. He collected from Italian, French, and Spanish archives, invaluable 
memorials for the history of modern Rome. The popes esteemed him the best versed, of all men, in 
their affairs ; he was called the Interpreter of the Curia ; he always proved himself full of talent, apt, 
and docile. This cardinal was held to be the founder of the study of political MSS. " I will not omit to 
mention," says the author of an essay entitled, Memoranda for the Roman See, " that the endeavour to 
gain information from MSS, was principally introduced by Cardinal Vitellozzo, of glorious memory. If 
he was not the first to set up the practice, at least he gave it new animation. His excellency was ex- 
ceedingly eager on this point; he took the utmost pains to get together written pieces from various places, 
and spent a great deal of money for them. To such an extent did he push his exertions, that his 
archives were surpassingly rich, and commanded universal wonder." The practice came very speedily 
into vogue. Cardinals and papal nephews established archives of their own, for similar collections ; and 
we find instances of such-a-one being recommended to another as a man who had a quiet, noiseless way 
of going to work, and bringing together many fine things. Pallavicini found such collections in the 
possession of Cardinal Spada, in the Borghese Palace, and he employed them in the composition of his 
History of the Council of Trent. Cardinal Francesco Barberini deposited another, in a long series of 
volumes, in the library that still bears his family name. Another was kept in the library Delia Vallicella, 
founded at the same period by San Filippo Neri. Collections similarly composed are to be found ha the 
Vatican, and in the mansions of the Chigi and Altieri families. But why attempt to enumerate them ? 
Rome was full of them ; Rome (says one reporter), where every thing is known, and nothing kept 
silent ; Rome (says another), a registry of all state transactions. It will not be supposed that every 
collector went back to the first fountain-heads. One copy produced twenty others ; and Vitellozzo's 
collection will probably have been the mother of the rest. A lively movement was continually kept up 
in this range of pursuit by the addition of new pieces. How should it have been difficult for a reigning 
nephew, the ambassador of a powerful sovereign, or an influential cardinal, to get possession of state 
papers, which, after all, did not always contain the very secrets of current negotiations, but were merely 
drawn up for the advice and guidance of the rulers ? At any rate, the Venetian Relationi, to which 
the state historiographers unambiguously allude, and collections of which in foreign libraries Foscarini 
mentions without suspicion, bear the full stamp of genuine authenticity. Collectors seem to have 
assisted each other by mutual exchanges. When we consider the ample stock that is extant of these 
writings, the wide range, and the abundance of their contents, it almost seems as though, even after the 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



3 



art of printing was in practice, there existed for the knowledge of modern history a literature apart, but 
only in manuscript ; a literature declared secret, and yet so diffused that works newly circulated excited 
public attention, and called forth replies ; a literature almost wholly unused, as regarded general 
knowledge, and yet rich, in manifold, instructive, well-written works. 

These collections did not remain confined to Rome. The archduke Cosmo of Tuscany appointed a man 
expressly to bring together and obtain copies of everything that had appeared there for a long while. In 
Venice, Agostino Nani had a stock of similar manuscripts. The library of Paris has so ample a store of 
Venetian Relazioni, that it seems almost in a condition to supply the place of the Venetian archives. They 
have also found their way to Germany. 

The royal library of Berlin contains a collection like those formerly made in Rome, and comprised in 
forty-eight vols, folio, of which forty-six are entitled Informationi Politiche. It is made up of writings of 
the same kind, reports, particularly of Venetian ambassadors, instructions, and memoranda for high 
functionaries entering on office, narratives of conclaves, letters, speeches, reflections, and notices. Each 
volume contains no small number of these, but not arranged in any order. The heads under which they 
might he ranged, such as the times and the places to which they relate, the languages in which they are 
composed (for though far the majority are written in Italian, some are in Spanish and some in Latin), 
have not been made the basis of any classification ; no other order of succession is observed than that in 
which the copies came to hand ; the same work recurs two or three times. The bulk however of what 
we find in this collection belongs to a definite and not very extensive circle. Some of the documents 
relate to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ; but these are not many, and are already known : perhaps 
only two amongst them may be deserving of reconsideration. It is not till we come to the sixteenth century 
that we find ourselves presented with a more varied store year by year. Instructions, reports, and letters 
fall most thickly between 1550 and 1580. After this, single points of time of pre-eminent importance 
for the general politics of Europe, 1593, 1606, 1610, 1618, present us with extraordinary abundance of 
materials. As we proceed, we find them continually decrease in frequency. The last manuscript is of 
the year 1650. Most of them are fairly written, revised by a corrector, and pleasanter to read than many 
a printed work. They are of very various worth : it is unnecessary to state that there are many excel- 
lent pieces among them. 

Twenty years ago Johann Miiller had thoughts of publishing extracts and notices of the Berlin col- 
lection. He devoted himself with great animation to its study, particularly in September 1807, and an 
essay is extant in which he describes the general impression made on him by the first volume. But he 
left Berlin in the October of the same year. It was no more permitted him to carry out this design than 
others of greater magnitude with which his noble soul was filled. 

The ducal library, too, at Gotha contains volumes of kindred matter. There are three large ones, 
and one smaller, in folio : they are the more important for us, as their contents are confined to Venetian 
Relationi. When Frederick- William, a sovereign who participated vividly in the general movements of 
his times, kept his court as administrator of electoral Saxony between 1502 and 1601 on the Hartenfels 
at Torgau, George Koppen presented him with at least two out of those three volumes, which are 
marked as his property. Possibly he collected them when travelling in Italy. 

I can never sufficiently extol the kindness with which I was allowed the use of these manuscripts. 
Along with a volume of just the same kind which fell into my own possession, I had before me fifty-three 
folio volumes full of the greatest variety of papers, comprising perhaps upwards of a thousand larger and 
smaller treatises, from which I was at liberty to select whatever seemed particularly suitable to my 
purposes. For these it was my good fortune to find them copious in materials. 

In truth, these manuscripts relate to almost all Europe. The pope sends his nuncios now to Switzer- 
land, now to Poland, and here we have their reports. The connexions of Venice stretch afar : we possess 
reports on Persia and Moscow, above all on England : they meet us however but sparingly, and one by 
one. It strikes me as singular, that neither in our own, nor as it seems in other collections, is there to 
be found a single report on Portugal by a Venetian ambassador *. As Rome and Venice constitute 
the centres of the politics here disclosed, so the manuscripts chiefly throw light on that southern 
Europe about the Mediterranean, with which those powers were most directly connected. Repeatedly 
do we accompany the bailo of the Venetians along the well known coasts to the capital of that Ottoman 
empire which was for them so formidable a neighbour, to the divan of the vizier, and to the audience 
hall of the sultan. Not unfrequently we accompany the ambassadors of the republic to the court of 
Spanish kings, whether they stood in the midst of an agitated world, in Flanders or in England, or kept 
their state in the quiet of Madrid. Piedmont, Tuscany, Urbino, and sometimes even Naples, are visited 
by special envoys ; but these are most constantly to be encountered in the Vatican and the Belvedere at 
Rome, in confidential discourse with the pope, in close relation with the pope's nephews and with many 
a cardinal, always engaged in the most weighty affairs, which keep their attention alive to every turn of 
things in that changeful court. Here we can take our place. Here we have native works instructing us 
as to a host of individual circumstances. The nuncios return to Rome after defending the rights of 
papal camera in Naples or in Spain, or consulting perhaps with the Catholic king on enterprises of great 
moment. Here Venice in her turn is made the subject of report, and so closes this circle. 

Were it but continuous and unbroken ! But in the midst of wealth we are sensible of our poverty. 

* (Note to the second edition.) There have since indeed been found a couple of Relationi on Portugal, besides many others, 
with the aid of which the present work might have been considerably enlarged. But having engaged in studies that carry 
me far from this range of subject, T must make up my mind to leave the work unchanged in essentials. I beg the reader 
too to regard it for the future as a work of the year 1827. In the new edition, which I publish only to meet the demands of 
the public, I have merely sought to improve the style here and there. 



4 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



As a whole there is much ; but when we look to particulars, great wants are apparent. Printed works, 
no doubt, by learned men, afford us welcome aid and manifold information : but still we remain in the 
dark on many points ; many questions arise and are not solved. We feel like a traveller who has roamed 
over even the less known heights and valleys of a country, and who then not only investigates individual 
points with more minuteness, but believes himself too to have acquired novel and true views of the 
whole, yet still feels the wants under which he labours even more sensibly it may be than the acquisitions 
he has made, and has now no more earnest wish than to return and make his inspection complete. 
Meanwhile he is allowed to communicate even his imperfect observations. The like permission I ask 
for myself and my attempts. 

Let the reader then accompany me, in the times of which our manuscripts chiefly treat, to those 
southern nations and states which then maintained a pre-eminent position in Europe. 

The diversity of the European nations was far more striking in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
than at present ; it was fully discernible in their systems of warfare. If the nations of Germanic and 
Roman origin every where furnished their territories with fortresses, and cultivated the use of artillery 
for the attack or defence of such strongholds ; if they took the field with no very numerous forces, and 
placed their chief reliance on their infantry ; the other nations on the contrary encountered each other 
on horseback in open and unfortified plains, and if a castle was any where to be seen, it served only to 
guard the treasures of the sovereign. Poland possessed so numerous a cavalry that it has been expressly 
computed that Germany, France, and Spain together would have been incapable of bringing a similar 
one into the field. The grand prince of Moscow could lead 150,000 mounted men to war ; the Szekler in 
Hungary alone were estimated at 60,000, the forces of the woiwodes of Transylvania, Moldavia, and I 
Wallachia, at 50,000 horsemen ; to these were to be added the Tatar nations, whose lives were passed 
on horseback. It will at once be perceived that this difference must have inferred a thorough diversity 
upon all other points. 

The supremacy among the second of these two classes of nations belonged to the Ottomans ; Hungary 
bore their yoke ; the principalities obeyed them ; and the Tatars yielded them military service. They 
belonged indeed essentially to the latter, but they had the advantage over them of the institution of their 
Porte. Among the first class the Spaniards were predominant. Not only were they rulers over a good I 
portion of Italy, but Charles V. carried them also into Germany ; they maintained themselves in at least 
half the Netherlands ; Philip II. was once king of England ; another time he had his armies at once in 
Provence and Bretagne, in Picardy and Burgundy, and his garrison in Paris. To match with him, the 
Italians asserted not physical force indeed, but the only supremacy left them, that of talent and address. 
This was evinced, not merely on occasions such as when cardinal Pole, during his administration in 
England, consulted with none but the Italians who had accompanied him thither, or when the two 
Medicean queens filled France with their own countrymen, though this too had its significance ; but 
above all through their literature, the first of modern times which combined a deliberate cultivation and 
perfecting of form with scientific comprehension. To this were added accomplishments in various arts. 
We find that the only engineer in Poland, about the year 1560, was a Venetian ; that Tedali, a Floi-entine, 
offered to make the Dniester navigable for the dwellers on its banks, and that the grand prince of Moscow 
had the castle in his capital built by an Italian. We shall see that their commerce still embraced 
half the world. 

Whilst these three nations made themselves formidable or conspicuous among the rest, they encoun- 
tered each other directly in the Mediterranean ; they filled all its coasts and waters with life and motion, 
and formed there a peculiar circle of their own. 

The Spaniards and the Italians were very closely knit together by the ties of church and state. By 
the former, because after the general departure from its communion, the dwellers alone beyond the 
Pyrenees and the Alps remained wholly faithful to the Roman see. By the latter, because Naples and 
Milan were Spanish. Often was Madrid the abode of young Italian princes, of the Roveri, the Medici, the 
Farnese, and Rome the residence of young Spaniards desirous of cultivating their minds. The Castilian 
poets adopted the forms of the Tuscan masters ; all the martial fame of the Italians was won in Spanish 
campaigns. 

The Ottomans set themselves in violent contrast to both. The Spaniards they encountered victoriously 
on the African, the Italians on the Greek coasts. They threatened Oran ; they attacked Malta with their 
whole force; they conquered Cyprus, and swarming round all the coasts they carried danger even into the 
haunts of peace. They were opposed therefore not alone by the old maritime powers of the two penin- 
sulas ; in Tuscany and Piedmont new knightly orders were founded for this strife ; the pope himself 
yearly despatched his galleys in May from Civita Vecchia to cruise against them ; the whole force of the 
two nations took part in this contest. Those fair coasts and many named seas that beheld in their 
antique grandeur the rise, the rivalry, and the extinction of the Shemitic, and the Greco-Roman sea 
dominions, that saw the mastery won successively by Arabs and by German Christians, were witnesses 
to a third struggle, when Ottomans came forth instead of Arabs, when Spaniards and Italians (for no 
other people stood by them in this cause, and the French were often leagued with the foe) had need to 
put forth all their strength to uphold the Christian name on the Mediterranean. Hereby was formed for 
the most immediate and vivid exertion of all the powers of these nations, a circle in which they are most 
at home, and which is often the horizon involuntarily bounding the thoughts and the fancy of their 
authors. The strife gave their genius free and vigorous play. It contributed to work out in them 
that singular mixture their minds then exhibited ; a mixture of pride and cunning, of illusion and eager- 
ness to discover the mystery of things, of romantic chivalry and insidious policy, of faith in the stars, and 
implicit devotion to religion. 

Let us now enter into this circle, among these nations. 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



I 



INTRODUCTION. 



Hoible indeed is the description the Ottomans 
give of their own origin. They relate that Othman, 
the founder of their empire and name, himself fol- 
lowed the plough with his servants, and that when 
he wished to break off from work at noon he used 
to stick up a banner as a signal to call them home. 
These servants and none besides were his first fol- 
lowers in war, and they were marshalled beneath | 
the same signal. But even he, they add, had in his 
day a forecasting of his house's future greatness, ! 
j and in a dream he beheld a tree grow up out of his 
I navel that overshadowed the whole earth *. 

The new power that arose in Asia Minor having J 
now established itself on its northern coasts, it 
chanced one day, as the story continues, that Soli- 
man, the grandson of Othman, rode along the shores j 
of the Hellespont, passing on through the ruins of 
ancient cities, and fell into a silent reverie. "What 
is my khan thinking of !" said one of his escort. 
K I am thinking,*' was the reply, "about our cross- 
ing over to Europe f" These followers of Soliman 
were the first who did cross over to Europe : they I 
were successful; and Soliman's brother, Amu- j 
rath I., was he who conquered Adrianople. 

Thenceforth the Ottoman power spread on the 
further side of the Hellespont, east and west from 
Brusa, and from Adrianople on this side northwards 
and southwards. Bajazeth L, the great-grandson 
of Othnian, was master here of Wedclin and Wal- 
lachia, yonder of Caramania and CEesarea. 

Europe and Asia, both threatened by Bajazeth, 
rose up to resist him. Europe however fell pros- 
trate at Nicopolis; and though Asia, for which j 
Timur stood forth as champion, was victorious, still 
it did not destroy the dominion of Bajazeth. It was 
but fifty years after this defeat that Mahomet II. 
took Constantinople, the imperial city whose sway | 
had once extended far over both quarters. The 
victor was not content with seeing the cities on the 
coasts of the Black Sea and the Adriatic own his 
supremacy; to bring the sea itself under subjection 
he built a fleet; he began to conquer the islands of 
the iEgean one after the other ; and his troops 
showed themselves in Apulia. 

There seemed to be no bounds to the career of 
victory. Though Bajazeth II. did not equal his 

* Leunclavii Historiae Musulmanae Turcorum de monu- 
roentis ipsorum exscriptie, iii. 113. 

t Leunclavii Annales Osmanidaium, p. 10. 



predecessors in valour, still his cavalry swept Friuli, 
his infantry captured fortresses in the Morea, and 
his fleets rode victorious in the Ionian Sea. But he 
was far outstripped by his son Selim and his grand- 
son Soliman. Selim overcame the Mamelukes of 
Cairo, who had often been victorious over Bajazeth; 
and he caused the Chutbe or prayer to be pronoun- 
ced in his noble name in the mosques of Syria and 
Egypt*. Soliman effected far more than he. One 
battle made him master of Hungary, and thence- 
forth he trod in that kingdom as in his own house. 
In the far east he portioned out the territory of 
Bagdad into sandshakates according to the banners 
of his troops. That Chaireddin Barbarossa, who 
boasted that his turban stuck on a pole scared the 
Christians and sent them flying for miles into the 
country, served him and made his name dreaded 
over the whole Mediterranean. With amazement 
and awe men reckoned up thirty kingdoms, and 
nearly 8000 miles of coast, that owned his sway. 
He styled himself emperor of emperors, prince of 
princes, distributer of the crowns of the world, 
God's shadow over both quarters of the globe, 
ruler of the Black and of the White Sea, of Asia 
and of Europe f. 

Foundations of the Ottoman Power. 

If we inquire what were the bases on which 
rested the essential strength and energy of this 
empire, and therewith the success of its efforts, our 
attention will be arrested by three things, viz. the 
feudal system, the institution of slavery, and the 
position of the supreme head. 

Every country overrun by the Ottomans was im- 
mediately after its conquest parcelled out according 
to banners and scymitars into a multitude of fiefs. 
The design was, the protection of the country once 
well provided for within and without, to keep its 
original conquerors ever ready for new achieve- 
ments. The great advantage of this system will be 
obvious, when it is considered that every possessor 
of the moderate income of 3000 aspers (sixty to a 
dollar) was required to hold a man and horse in 

* See Selim's diploma of investiture in Hammer's Staats- 
verfassung und Staatsverwaltung des osmanischen Reichs, 
Bd. i. § 195. 

t Soliman's letter to Francis I. Gamier, Histoire de 
France, xxv, p. 407. 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 







constant readiness for war, and another mounted 
soldier was to be furnished for every additional 
5000 aspers ; that in this way Europe could supply 
80,000, Natolia 50,000 sipahi (the name of this ca- 
valry); that to raise this force nothing more was 
requisite than an order to the two beglerbegs of 
the empire, from whom it found its way to the com- 
manders of the banners, the sandshakbegs, and 
through them to the commanders of the squadrons, 
the alaibegs, and so on to every possessor of a fief, 
large or small, of a siamet or a timar, whereupon 
the muster and the march followed forthwith*. 
Now comes the question how was the feudal sys- 
tem kept free from that principle of inheritance 
which has always prevailed in our feudal institu- 
tions? These fiefs conferred no title of nobility, 
neither were they properly entailed on sons. Soli- 
man ordered that if a sandshakbeg with an income 
of 700,000 aspers left behind him a son a minor, 
the latter should receive nothing but a timar of 
5000 aspers, with the express obligation of main- 
taining a mounted soldier out of the proceeds. 
There exist multitudes of similar ordinances ap- 
pointing to the son of a sipahi a larger timar if his 
father died in the field, a smaller if he died at home, 
but in all cases but a small onef. "Therefore," 
says Barbaro, " there is among them neither nobi- 
lity nor wealth; the children of men of rank, whose 
private treasures are taken possession of by other 
grandees, enj oy no personal distinction J." Still there 
did exist even here a principle of inheritance, but 
an inheritance not so much of individuals as of all 
together, not of the son from the father but of ge- 
neration from generation. It was a fundamental 
law that no one should obtain a timar but the son 
of a timarli§. Every one was obliged to begin his 
career from the lowest grade. Putting all this to- 
gether we behold in the timarli a great community, 
tracing its origin essentially to the first companions 
of Othman, but afterwards numerously recruited 
by the events of war and by voluntary submission; 
a community void in itself of distinction of ranks, 
save such as is conferred by bravery, fortune, and 
the sultan's favour, which has imposed the sultan's 
yoke on the empire, and is ready to do the same by 
all the other realms of the world, and if possible to 
parcel them out in like manner among its own 
members. 

This correlation must have unfolded itself by a 
natural process of development, out of that origi- 
nally subsisting between the lord and his warlike 
servants, which, if 1 err not, much more resembled 
the personal subjection of the Mamelukes to the 
emirs, than the free allegiance owned by the bands 
of the west towards their condottieri ||. But a 

* Relatione di Constantinopoli del CI Sg* Bernardo Nava- 
gero, MS. " Li sanzacchi sono obligati tener prima un allai- 
beg, che e un luogotenente del suo sanzacco, poi timarioti 
overo spahi, li quali sott' il governo d'allaibeg sono con lui 
insieme sottoposti all' obedienza del sanzacco." Later wri- 
ters, Marsigli for instance, mention alaibegs only on the 
frontiers. 

t Canunname of Soliman to the beglerbeg Mustafa, Ham- 
mer, i. 349. Order of the same to Lutfl Pacha, ib. i. 364. 

% Relatione del CI Marcantonio Barbaro MS. "Lidescen- 
denti loro vanno totalmente declinando et restano affatto 
prM d'ogni minimo grado." 

§ Canunname of Aini, Hammer, i. 372. 

|| Schlozer's 7th section in the Origg. Osman, p. 150, with 
the motto "C'est tout comme chez nous," only points out the 



much more peculiar institution, for which I know 
not whether a parallel ever existed before or since, 
was the education of stolen children for soldiers or 
statesmen in the service of the sultan. 

Every five years it was the practice to make a 
seizure of the children of the Christians in the em- 
pire. Small bands of soldiers, each under a cap- 
tain furnished with a firman, marched from place 
to place. On their arrival the protogeros assem- 
bled the inhabitants with their sons. The captain 
was empowered to carry off all between the age of 
seven and that of manhood, who were distinguish- 
ed for beauty or strength, or who possessed any 
peculiar talent or accomplishment. He brought 
them like a tithe, as it were, to the court of the 
grand signor. Others were carried thither from 
the campaigns, as the portion of the booty by law 
reserved to the sultan. No pacha returned from 
an expedition without bringing the sultan a present 
also on his own part of young slaves. Thus were 
there gathered together at the Porte children of 
various nations, the majority of them natives of the 
country, but besides them Poles likewise, Bohe- 
mians and Russians, Italians and Germans *. They 
Avere divided into two classes. One of these was 
sent, especially in earlier times, to Natolia, where 
they served among the peasants, and were trained 
up as Moslem; or they were kept in the serai, 
where they were employed in carrying water, in 
working hi the gardens, in the barges, or in the 
buildings, being always under the inspection of an 
overseer, who kept them to then* tasks with the 
stick. But the others, those who appeared to give 
evidence of superior qualities (many an honest 
German was persuaded that it was only by the 
help of evil spirits the fact was so happily discri- 
minated), passed into one of the four serais, that of 
Adrianople or of Galata, or the old or the new serai 
of Stambul. Here they were lightly dressed in linen 
or in cloth of Salonichi; they wore caps of Brusa 
stuff; every morning they were visited by teachers, 
each paid eight aspers daily, who remained till 
evening instructing the children in reading the law 
and in writing *f\ 

At the appointed age they were all circumcised. 
Those who were engaged in severer tasks became 
janissaries in process of tinie ; those who were 
brought up in the serai were made either sipahi, 
(not feudatory but paid,) who served at the Porte, 
or higher state functionaries. 

Both classes were kept under strict discipline. 
Soranzo's Relatione informs us how the first named 
class especially was exercised by day in every kind 
of self-denial as to food, drink, and comfortable 

resemblance between Othman and a Sforza, which however 
is but a general one, but not their difference, which to me 
seems much stronger. 

* All Relationi, printed and unprinted, are full of the 
" scelta di piccoli giovanetti figliuoli di Christiani," as 
Barbaro expresses himself. Of the booty in war Morosini 
says, (Constantinopoli del 1584, MS.) " Vengono presentati 
quotidianamente al Gran Signore da suoi generali, cosi da 
terra come da mare, quando tornano dalla guerra." 

t Morosini : " Sono posti nel serraglio proprio del Gran Si- 
gnore, nel serraglio di Galata, in quello del hipodromo ed in 
quello d'Adrianopoli : nelli quali 4 serragli continuamente 
si trovano il numero di 5 o 6 mila giovanni, quali non escono 
mai da detto serraglio, ma sotto una grandissima disciplina 
vengono ammaestrati et accostumati di buonissima creanza." 
The rest is from Navagero. 



FOUNDATIONS OF THE OTTOMAN POWER. 



7 



clothing, in laborious hand labours, in shooting 
with the bow and the arquebus; how they passed 
the night in a long lighted hall, watched by an 
overseer who walked up and down continually and 
allowed them no rest *. Were they then enrolled 
among the janissaries ; did they enter those con- 
ventlike barracks in which the various odas ob- 
served such strict community in their economy 
that their military ranks derived their names from 
mess and soup, they continued to practise obe- 
dience, not only the young in silence and subjection 
to their elders f, but all of them under such strict 
rules that none durst pass the night beyond the 
walls, and that whoever suffered punishment was 
bound to kiss the hand of the muffled individual 
who inflicted it upon him. 

In no less strict discipline lived the young people 
in the serai, every ten of them under the inspection 
of an inexorable eunuch, and employed in similar 
exercises to the others, to which however were 
added literary and somewhat knightly tasks. Every 
three years the grand signor allowed their depar- 
ture from the serai. Those who preferred remain- 
ing rose in the immediate service of their lord, ac- 
cording to their age, from chamber to chamber, 
with a constant increase of pay, till they reached 
perchance to one of the four great offices of the in- 
nermost chamber, whence the way lay open to the 
dignity of beglerbeg, of capitan deiri, i. e. admiral, 
or even of vizier. Those, on the other hand, who 
availed themselves of the permission were received, 
each in accordance with his previous rank, into the 
first four regiments of paid sipahi serving at the 
Porte, which were more trusted by the sultan than 
his other body guards J. Merrily did they scamper 
out through the gates, decked in their new finery 
and swinging the purse of gold they had received 
as a present from the grand signor. 

A German philosopher once proposed a system 
of education for children, which was to be carried 
on apart from the parents in a special community, 
and in such a way that a new will should take the 
place of the old one. Here we have such an edu- 
cation. Here is total separation, strict community, 
the formation as it were of a new principle of life. 
The youths thus brought up forgot their childhood, 
their parents, their homes, knew no native land but 
the serai, no lord and father but the grand signor, 
no will but his, no hope but of his favour; they 
knew no life but one passed in rigid discipline and 
unconditional obedience, no occupation but war in 
his service, no personal purpose unless it were 
plunder in this life, and in death the paradise 
thrown open to him who fought for Islam. What 
the philosopher proposed in idea for the purpose of 

* Soranzo. Viaggio MS. " Gli Azamogliani ( Adshem Oglan) 
hanno un gran luogo, simile a un convitorio de frati : dove 
ciascuno la sera distende il suo stramazette et coperta; e vi 
si conca, havendo prima li guardiani accese per il lungo 
delle sala lampade." 

t Soranzo : ' 1 Sono obligati i Giannizzeri nuovi a servire i 
piu vecchi et anteriori nello spendere, apparecchiare et 
altri servitii." 

J Morosini : " Quelli della stanza del tesoro escono spahi 
della prima compagnia con 20 — 22 aspri di paga ; quelli della 
stanza grande e piccola del proprio serraglio, dove staS. M., 
escono medesimamente spahi della prima e seconda com- 
pagnia con 18—20 aspri ; quelli delli altri tre serragli escono 
della 3 e 4 legione con aspri 10 — 14 di paga." Respecting 
these sipahi see also Libri iii delle Cose de' Turchi. Aldine 
press F. 15. 



training up youth in morality, religion, and com- 
munion, was here put in practical execution centu- 
ries before his day, to the development of a spirit 
at once slavish and warlike. 

This institution perfectly fulfilled its intentions. 
Busbek, an Austrian ambassador at the court of 
Soliman, whose report is among the most celebrated 
and the best authenticated, cannot help overflowing 
with admiration as he describes the rigorous disci- 
pline of these janissaries, now seeming like, monks, 
now like half statues, their extremely modest garb, 
the heron plume on their head-dress perhaps ex- 
cepted, their frugal habits of life, and the way in 
which they season their carrots and turnips with 
hunger *. Under then- discipline brave and digni- 
fied men were produced, to the amazement of all 
beholders, out of lads who had run away from an 
inn, a kitchen, or a convent school in some Chris- 
tian country. They would suffer no one among 
them who had been brought up in the ease and 
softness of a parental dwelling. It cannot be de- 
nied that in decisive engagements they alone pre- 
served the empire. The battle of Varna, one foun- 
dation of all the Ottoman greatness, would have 
been lost but for themf. At Cossowa the Rumelian 
and the Natolian force had already taken to flight 
before the evil Jancu, as they called Johann Hun- 
niades ; but these janissaries won the victory^. 
They boasted that they had never fled in battle §. 
The fact is admitted by Lazarus Schwendi, long a 
German commander-in-chief against them ||. They 
are designated in all reports as the nerve and the 
core of the Ottoman forces. It is a highly remark- 
able fact, that this invincible infantry was formed 
in the east just at the time (since 1367) that in our 
side of Europe the Swiss, foot soldiers likewise, de- 
vised and practised their equally invincible order 
of battle. Only the former consisted solely of slaves, 
the latter of the freest men of the mountains. 

The same discipline imposed on the janissaries 
was equally observed with the sipahi and the ser- 
vants of the serai, who were to rise thence to higher 
dignities. Inwardly to resist this discipline, and to 
return, should occasion offer, to Christendom, was 
an effort that demanded the soul of a Scanderbeg. 
Hardly will another example be found of one of 
these youths returning to the parents from whose 
arms he had been torn and to his old home. And 
how should they ? There was no hereditary aristo- 
cracy to interpose their claims, and dispute with 
them the rewards of their valour or their talents 
on the contrary they were themselves destined to 
fill all the highest dignities of the empire, all the 
sandshakates; the aga of the janissaries was taken 
from their body; not only the whole government 
of the country, but the command too of its armies 
was in their hands ; every one saw before him a field 
of exertion, a career in life, with which before his 
eyes he might forget that he was a slave. Nay 

* Augerii Gislenii Busbequii legationis Turcica? Epistolae 
iv. Frankf. 1595, p. 200, 15, 78. Ejusdem de re militari 
contra Turcas instituenda Consilium, p. 352. 

t Callimachus, Experiens de clade Varnensi, in Oporinus, 
p. 311. 

I Leunclavii Historiae Musulmanag d. i. T. m. e., p. 519. 

§ Paulus Jovius, Ordo militiae Turcica?, p. 221. 

|| Lazari Suendii, Quomodo Turcis sit resistendum con- 
silium, in Couring's collection. Helmst. 1664, p. 383. 

IF This is particularly dwelt on by Ubertus Folieta de 
causis magnitudinis imperii Turcici, Leips. 1595, p. 6. 



8 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



on the very contrary the condition of these men 
seemed possessed of high charms in the estimation 
of those Christians who longed for adventures and 
brilliant promotion. Many voluntarily left their 
native land to seek their fortunes among these 
slaves. On their part they kept their own body 
rigorously aloof from foreign admixture, not suffer- 
ing any born Turk, nor even the son of a grand 
vizier, though the father had risen from their own 
ranks, to become a sandshak*. Their sons entered 
the fifth and sixth corps of the paid soldiers, or 
into the number of the feudatory sipahi, or timarli, 
among whom the empire was portioned out, and con- 
tinually augmented and reinvigorated that body. 

Such was this institution of slaves. " It is in the 
highest degree remarkable," exclaims Barbaro, that 
" the wealth, the administration, the force, in short 
the whole body politic of the Ottoman empire re- 
poses upon, and is intrusted to men born in the 
Christian faith, converted into slaves, and reared 
up Mahometans." On this institution depends the 
character and the form of government of the 
Turks. 

If we have now made it clear that the power of 
this empire, so far as those constitute the true 
power whose activity is apparent, consisted of two 
corporations, the timarli and that twofold body of 
slaves, the larger moiety of which constituted the 
elite of the army on horseback and on foot, and the 
smaller had the administration and the executive 
in its hands, it is no less obvious that war was ab- 
solutely necessary to the empire on account of both 
these corporations ; on account of the timarli, be- 
cause their numbers grew continually by additions 
from among the slaves, and so there was a constant 
need of acquiring new timars ; and on account of 
the janissaries and the paid sipahi that they might 
practise what they had learned, and not be spoiled 
by sitting down inactively at the serai *f\ 

It is in war that we behold the physiology of this 
warlike state in all its genuine character. The 
timarli are seen marshalled beneath the banners 
of their respective corps ; they carry bows and 
quivers, iron maces and daggers, scymitars and 
lances ; they know how to use these various wea- 
pons at the right moment with the utmost dex- 
terity ; they are trained with rare skill to pursue 
and to retire, now to hang back in alert suspense, 
now to dash forward and scour the country. Their 
horses too claim attention ; they come chiefly from 
Syria, where they have been reared with the ut- 
most care, and fondled almost like children. 
Judges indeed remarked that they were some- 
what ticklish to the stirrup, apt to swerve aside, 
and hard mouthed ; this however was rather 
the fault of the riders, who used tight bits and 
short stirrups J ; otherwise the animals proved 

* Barbaro : " Ne possono patire che ne un figliuolo de' 
prinri visir sia fatto sangiacco." 

t Valieri, Relatione di Constantinopoli, MS. " Si va dis- 
correndo, che essendo stato quel imperio per suo instinto 
quasi continuamente lontano della pace non possi in alcun 
tempo star lungamente quieto, ma ad una guerra fa succeder 
l'altra, e per desiderio de nuovi acquisti e per la necessita che 
stimano d'havere d'impiegar la militia, la quale facilmente 
pud causare seditioni, tumulti et novita. Li corpi grossi con 
mosso si mantengono e si fanno piu robusti e con l'otio si 

impiono di malo humore Li fiumi, che corrono, con- 

servano l'acqua sana." 

t See the Relatione of Floriani, MS., particularly p. 217. — 



tractable, serviceable, as well on mountainous and 
stony ground as on the plain, indefatigable, and 
always full of spirit. The most accomplished riders 
were furnished from many a district. It was sur- 
prising to see them hurl their maces before them, 
gallop after them, and catch them again ere they 
fell *. Turning slightly round, with the horse at 
full speed, they would discharge their arrows back- 
wards with unerring aim. Next to these the Porte 
sent forth its paid sipahis and its janissaries. The 
former, in addition to their scymitars, were armed 
with those lances, by the small flags on which they 
were distinguished ; some also were furnished with 
bows. A few were equipped with coats of mail 
and morions, but rather for show than for service j 
their round shields and their turbans seemed to 
them defence enough. The janissaries lastly 
marched in long flowing garments, armed with 
scymitar and arquebus, in their girdles the hand- 
jar and the small hatchet ; dense in their array, 
their plumes like a forest. 

It was as though the camp was the true home of 
this people. Not only was it kept in admirable 
order, so that not an oath or an altercation was to 
be heard, no drunken man, no gambling was to be 
seen in it ; nor anything to be found in it that could 
offend either sight or smell f. It was also to be 
remarked that the life the soldier led at home was 
but meagre and sorry compared with the magnifi- 
cence of the camp. For every ten janissaries the 
sultan maintained a horse to carry their baggage ; 
every five and twenty had a tent that served them 
in common ; in these they observed the regulations 
of their barracks, and the elder were waited on by 
the younger. No sipahi was so mean that he did not 
possess a tent of his own. How gallant and glitter- 
ing was their array as they rode in their silken 
surcoats, their particoloured richly wrought shield 
on their left arms, their right hands grasping the 
costly mounted sword, feathers of all hues waving 
in their turbans. But surpassingly splendid was 
the appearance of their leaders. Jewels hung 
round their horses' ears ; saddles and housings 
were studded with others ; chains of gold hung 
from their bridles. The tents shone with Turkish 
and Persian decorations ; here the booty was laid 
up ; a numerous retinue of eunuchs and slaves was 
in attendance. 

Religion and morals were in harmony with this 
martial tendency that pervaded the whole being of 
the nation. It has frequently been remarked how 
much Islamism promoted arms, how strongly the 
belief it inculcated in an inevitable destiny tended 
to inspire with courage in the fight. Besides this, 

" Portano i morsi stretti, le selie picciole, le staffe large et 
corte." [The broad stirrup pointed on the inner side, serves 
the Turkish rider for a spur. — Translator.] 

* These accomplishments are best described in the Rela- 
tione of 1637, though it remarks that they had then grown 
rare: "tanto che ridotti si trovano in rarita. — Ferendo in 
oltre cosi bene con l'arco che mentre corre velocemente il 
destriero, di saetta armano l'arco, — et rivoltandosi a dietro 
con l'arco seguitato dall' occhio scoccano lo strale, e colpiscono 
dove disegnano ferire." 

+ See, for somewhat earlier times indeed, Cuspinianus de 
militari instituto etc. Turcorum in Caesaribus, p. 579, and 
for the times before us Busbequius. Floriani: "Dallagran- 
dezza e dalla commodita che ha il Turco in campagna, si 
vede chiaramente ch'egli e nella sua propria residenza, e 
che nelle terre egli e piu tosto forestiero che cittadino." 



THE MODERN GREEKS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



9 



it was the opinion in the sixteenth century, that 
the numerous ablutions which prevented the un- 
cleanliness to which so many diseases owe their 
origin in camps, and even the prohibition of wine, 
were laudable and well considered measures. For 
in the first it cost inordinate trouble to procure 
wine and to convey it to the camp ; and when it 
was there, how many disorders did it give rise to 
in western armies *. It was even thought that the 
daily habits of the Turks might be traced to the 
necessities of the camp. In Morosini's opinion the 
Turks sat on a plain carpet stretched on the 
ground, and ate on the ground, and slept where 
they had eaten, that they might find nothing 
strange which the life of the camp and the tent 
rendered indispensable +. Be this as it may, the 
Ottomans assuredly regarded themselves above all 
as warriors. In the edicts of Constantinople, by 
way of distinguishing them from the Christians, 
the latter are called citizens, while the former are 
styled soldiers, askery J. 

Now, taking into consideration all these facts, 
first, that all were slaves (and most so those who 
stood highest), trained unceasingly to unconditional 
obedience ; that there was not a man among them 
possessed of any independent rights, of family pro- 
perty, jurisdiction, or retainers ; that every career 
depended on the beck of the sultan, from whom 
his slave expected either magnificent rewards, or 
degradation and death ; and lastly, that the whole 
system was thoroughly military in its organization, 
that the state was warlike and its business war ; — 
taking all this into account, it is very clear that 
the sultan was the soul of this singularly consti- 
tuted body, the origin of its very movement, and 
above all, that he too, if he would reign, must 
needs be of a warlike spirit. Bajazeth II. proved 
this by experience in his old age. When he could 
no longer take the field, disorder followed upon 
disorder, and he was at last compelled to give way 
to his martial son. Soliman, on the other hand, 
was altogether the ruler suited to that warlike 
state. Whilst his lofty stature, his manly features, 
and his large black eyes beneath his broad fore- 
head, plainly bespoke the soldier §, he displayed 
all the vivacity, all the open-handedness and the 
justice that make a ruler beloved and feared. He 
would hardly ever have desisted from campaigns 
of conquest. It is ve:y possible, indeed, that we 
shall never be able thoroughly to fathom his de- 
signs ; but thus much we know, that the Multeka||, 
a law-book he caused to be compiled, most pres- 
singly inculcates war against the unbelievers as 
an universal duty : they were to be called on to 
embrace Islam or pay the capitation tax, and if 
they refused both alternatives, they were to be 
pursued with arrows, and all implements of war, 
and with fire, their trees should be cut down, their 
crops laid waste. The fanatical book which is 

* These remarks are made by Floriani. 

+ " Quelli popoli, come quelli che hanno sempre fatto pro- 
fessione delle cose della guerra, hanno sempre usato il modo 
del viver nelle case loro che e conforme a quello che e neces- 
sario in campo." 

% Muradgea d'Ohsson, from the decrees of Muhammed II 
Tableau de l'empire Othoman, ii. 268. 

§ Navagero 237. "Ha il fronte largo e un poco promi- 
nente, gli occhi grossi e neri, il naso acquilino e un poco 
grandetto a proportione delle altre fattezze, e ha il collo un 
poco lungo." 

|| Extract from book xiii. of the Multekain Hammer i. 163. 



known unto us under the name of Trumpet Peal of 
the Holy War, a book which omits no exhortation, 
no promise, no command by which believers could 
be excited to the frenzy of a religious war, that 
bids the mussulman cling till death to the horse's 
forelock, and live in the shadow of the lances, 
till all men own the creed of Mahomet, was trans- 
lated into Turkish towards the close of his reign *, 
probably for the immediate use of the youth of the 
serai. 

Digression respecting the modern Greeks in the 
Sixteenth Century. 

But whilst the Ottomans were disturbing and 
threatening the world, how lived they in whose 
country they had reared their empire ? 

Whilst the whole southern range of Asia, a 
native seat of civilization, no longer beheld aught 
but tyrannous rulers and peoples condemned in 
masses to hard servitude, the Ottoman transplanted 
this desolation to Europe. A state of things of 
this nature usually has two great epochs. As long 
as the dominant power is intrinsically strong, the 
conquered passively endure ; flight itself is courage ; 
the boldest retreat to inaccessible mountains. But 
as those grow weak, these rise up to isolated deeds 
of violence, to the wild retaliation of robbery and 
murder. So the Mahrattas rose against the Mo- 
guls, the Lores and Kurds against the Sofis, and 
the Wechabites, the children of the desert, against 
these same Ottomans. 

The Greeks in Soliman's time were in the stage 
of obedience. They had no part in war, politics, or 
public life, save as renegades or serfs. Their cha- 
raz f , the wretched produce of their toil, where- 
with they purchased the right of existing, filled the 
treasury of the Ottoman. There is nothing a nation 
more needs than an abundance of noble men who 
devote themselves to the common weal ! The 
Ottoman regularly carried off the flower of the 
Greek youth to the serai. On this institution he 
founded at once his own strength and subjection. 
He fed upon their marrow. 

Many superior Greeks, to please their lords, 
accommodated themselves to this enervation. No 
few descendants of the noble families of Constanti- 
nople, which had in earlier days themselves been 
native oppressors, farmed the revenues of the sul- 
tan. Palaiologoi and Kantakuzenoi were remarked 
in the capital, Mamaloi and Notaradai in Pelo- 
ponnesus, Batazidai, Chrysoloroi, and Azanaioi in 
the ports of the Black Sea. Such as combined 
with these employments those commercial pursuits 
in which we find the Greeks engaged now in Mos- 
cow and now in Antwerp, could speedily arrive at 
great wealth. Michael Kantakuzenos was able in 
the year 1571 to make a present of fifteen galleys 
to the sultan : when he rode on his mule through 
the streets, six servants ran before him, and seven- 
teen followed him. These rich Greeks adopted 
oriental manners under the Ottomans, as they as- 
sumed those of Italy under the Venetians. They 
wore the turban, they imitated the domestic ar- 

* Preface by Johann Miiller to Hammer's translation of 
this book, p. 7. 

t Navagero, Relatione : " II carazzo e il tributo che pa- 
gano tutti li Christiani che habitano il paese, le persone un 
ducato per testa, le pecore aspro uno et mezzo per testa." — 
It was otherwise at a later period. For the manner in which 
the charaz was exacted from poor herdsmen in 1676, see 
Spon et Wheler, Voyage de Grece, ii. 41. 



10 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



rangements of their conquerors ; they delighted in 
gorgeous finery. Their women wrapped their hair 
in golden nets, and decked their foreheads with 
diadems of pearls ; heavy jewelled drops hung 
from then.' ears ; their bosoms were covered more 
with golden chains than with drapery *. It was as 
though every man was in haste to enjoy an uncer- 
tain prosperity, as though he felt the hand of the 
tyrannous ruler suspended over him. Michael 
Kantakuzenos was in vain so submissive, nay, so 
liberal handed, to the sultan : the latter at last sent 
his capidji bashi, had him hanged before the door 
of the stately house he had built himself at Achilo, 
and his treasures carried to the serai +. 

The poorer people dragged on their days in want 
and servitude. A great part of the country was 
waste, depopulated, and ruined. What could thrive 
in the land where every sandshak strove to extort 
double the income assigned him, where rapacious 
contractors often filled his place J, and where 
every Osmanli bore himself as unlimited lord and 
master ? The people of the islands were decidedly 
better off. We find Lemnos and Lesbos very well 
cultivated in the year 1548. We see the people 
tilling their fields, planting their vines, attending 
to their springs and watercourses, and cultivating 
their gardens. Here they remained true to them- 
selves. 

The people still manifested the noble qualities of 
their native stock. The sw r eet tone of Homeric 
words still lived in Chios : they still counted in 
those days fourteen villages of the Laconians in 
Peloponnesus, where a Greek almost identical with 
the ancient was spoken : the Athenians were still 
remarked for their surprising memory and their 
melodious voices : even in the household utensils 
the artistic forms of ancient sculpture have always 
been perceptible. So likewise in their social life 
there were preserved some elements of their for- 
mer civilization. The symposia of the men were 
everywhere found adapted as of old to a lofty 
strain of conversation ; where arms were allowed, 
they had those armed dances which w r ere kept up 
for whole days by men girt with the sword, and 
arrayed with bow and quiver §. The active and 
spontaneous ingenuity of the Greek character in 
labour and recreation, with sword and shield, 
above all at sea and on shipboard, was prover- 
bial ||. 

* The most important authorities on this head are the 
writings, letters, and notices collected with care and love by 
Martin Crusius, who styles himself 0t\e\A, )V /, and who was 
the first that was justly entitled to the name. They are 
contained in his Turcograecia, Basle, 1584, fol. pp. 91. 211. 
225. 485. 

t The rich lord Michalis, whose death is described in the 
oldest of the Greek songs lately published by Fauriel, which 
he found written in the characters of the sixteenth century. 
{Tpayoudia 'Panaina. Ausg. von Miiller, 1. 94) is doubtless 
none other than our Michael Kantakuzenos. This event 
excited the strongest sympathy. There exists aD essay on 
the subject, "Per qual causa e come e stato impiccato 
Michael Cantacuseno a di 3 Marzo a Achilo davanti la 
porta di casa sua." Turcogr. 274. It is a pity it has not 
been preserved entire. The 'Icrropla iroXniKt) KwvcnavTivov- 
noXew (ib. p. 43) concludes with a reference to it. 

X Navagero and Barbaro's Relationi. 

§ These and many other traits are noticed by Bellon in 
his Observations de plusieurs singularites en Grece, i. ch. 
4, ch. 25, and elsewhere. See also Turcogr. 489. 209. 216. 
430. 

|| A rhyming proverb, still older than that oldest poem 



There was no room however for the free expan- 
sion of the mind, where the energies were directed 
only towards the most immediate necessities, and 
the whole state and being was debased. The 
language became overladen with Bulgarian, Turk- 
ish, and Italian words : it fell into a hundred dege- 
nerations of barbaric forms. No instruction was 
to be thought of, for there existed no instructor. 
So soon as men do not acknowledge nor seek to 
acknowledge the laws of the creation, its operations 
begin to stultify the soul and bewilder it with illu- 
sions : these Greeks were wholly possessed by a 
fantastic view of nature and her works. There 
remained only one element in which their mental 
life could give itself expression : they retained that 
utterance of nature, song. The Athenians were 
pre-eminently rich in lays in the sixteenth century*. 
We can imagine of what kind they were, when we 
find lovers sitting together and vying which shall 
outdo the other in repeating them. They were un- 
doubtedly that well-known kind of song that accom- 
panies with its monotonous and almost sad strains 
the joys and the sorrows of a simple life. Its sub- 
jects were joy, the sweets of love, and family en- 
dearments ; sorrow, death, and separation ; and 
then that lonelines.s that charges the moon with 
its greetings, that makes the birds its messengers, 
wanders with the clouds, has the stars and the sea 
for its confidants, and animates the lifeless world 
with a fancied sympathy. 

Thus does the people, once in the enjoyment of 
a life in which the human race beholds its pride 
and centuries their paragon, return to the condition 
of nature, after having lived for long ages con- 
strained within narrow forms, if not dishonourably, 
yet without renown. It pictures to itself its old 
forefathers as giants. An ancient grave stone is, 
by its account, the manger of Alexander's horse. 

But the return is not complete. How could 
they, if totally dismembered, maintain their nation- 
ality in the face of the victorious foe ? On the con- 
trary, religion and priesthood exercised over them 
their wonted sw-ay. 

Through these it was that the Greeks were 
rigorously severed from the Ottomans. Historical 
works written in the sixteenth century call the 
sultan "the accursed" even in the midst of his 
victories, and his people " the strangers." Justice 
administered by the Ottomans was a thing sedu- 
lously avoided ; legal proceedings were presided 
over by the elders, by the good men of the various 
localities, and by the priests ; whoever withdrew 
from their authority was put under a ban some- 
times with his whole house. The Greek woman 
who married a Turk was excommunicated f . They 
paid their charaz to the Turks, they endured what 
could not be remedied ; but in other respects they 
kept aloof from then' oppressors ; the state to 
which they chose to belong was different from 
theirs ; it was the hierarchy. 

This hierarchy was built on the established sub- 
ordination of all priests to the patriarch of Con- 
stantinople. Even the patriarchs of Jerusalem, 
Antioch, and Alexandria, owned him for their 
head. His high priesthood w r as acknowledged over 

mentioned above, is given by Crusius from the lips of a 
Greek, Turcogr. 211. 

* Zygomalas to Crusius : iie\ea-i dicupopois OeXyovai tovs 
ukovovtcls u>i aetpijvoov /ue\>j. 

t Turcogra=cia, 25. 220. 



ON THE DECAY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



11 



the whole eastern world, from the cataracts of the 
Nile almost to the Baltic, from Armenia to the 
Ionian islands. He sent his exarchs every year 
into the provinces to receive the dues of the pa- 
triarchate from the metropolitans. Every five 
years he set out in person to visit his dioceses, to 
allay disputes, and to give them his blessing *. 

While his authority was thus wide in its range, 
it was no less minute in its application to the most 
individual details of life. There was nothing in 
which he was not appealed to. A lady who had 
married in Chios, and who was now, upon the death 
of her husband, ill-treated by laymen and priests, 
applies to him for succour. A certain person has 
had the water cut off from his garden: he lays the 
matter before the patriarch. A daughter by a 
second marriage has engrossed the whole inherit- 
ance; the daughter by the first marriage claims 
her share, and applies to the patriarch who is the 
father of the fatherless *f*. Mirzena, a noble lady 
of Wallachia, entreats the patriarch to select hus- 
bands for her daughters from among the Greeks of 
higher rank 

Must not this subjection, especially in matters 
of litigation, have been irksome to many I What 
may it have been that bent their necks to the pa- 
triarch ? Such is human nature, that whole nations 
may pass under the sway of an error, and that error 
may subserve their best interests ; the germs by 
which fife is propagated may find shelter under 
such a covering. The whole force of the patriarchs 
consisted in excommunication. And what was there 
in this so coercive and formidable I The conviction 
was entertained that the body of a man cursed by 
the patriarch did not perish in the earth. So long 
as the devil had hold of the soul, so long the bonds 
of the flesh could not be loosed, till the patri- 
arch recalled the curse. The illusion was insisted 
on, even to the sultan, and confirmed by dreadful 
examples. There is no doubt that it was predo- 
minant in the sixteenth century, and that it was 
the terrific cause that forced the refractory to 
obedience §. 

But others obeyed cheerfully. With joy they 
gazed on the holy cross erected on the patriarchion, 
and visible afar from land and sea. The patri- 
archion itself, near a church of the Virgin on an 
eminence in Constantinople, an enclosed court with 
a few trees containing the residence of the patri- 
arch, was in their eyes a holy spot ||. None passed 
its gates without laying the hand on the breast, 
bowing, and making the sign of the cross as he 
proceeded on his way. It was believed for certain 
that yonder church of the Virgin shone like the 
sun even in the darkness. They even went the 
length of directly coupling these things with the 
Deity. " When we behold the priests and deacons 
advance in the sticharies and ovaries, surround 

* Gerlachii Literae, ad Crusium, Turcogr. p. 502, and 
Crusii Annotatt. p. 197. 

t The letters on these subjects are all given in the third 
book of the Turcograecia. 

J See the above mentioned Italian narrative, respecting 
Michael Kantakuzenos. 

§ 'loTopla TroXtTLKt] K.wv<?TavTivovTr6\ea)i, p. 27. 'iCTOpi'a 
■rrarpiapxiK)], p. 133. Another example in the 'lo-Topia narp. 
p. 151. Heineccius, De absolutione mortuorum tympanico- 
mm in Ecclesia Gra?ca. 

|| A little sketch of this, but after the removal of the cross, 
is given in the Turcogr. p. 190. 



the throne and bend then* heads in prayer, they are 
like the angels of God as they place themselves 
round the heavenly throne to offer up their ' Holy 
is God ! ' Nay, with God himself on his heavenly 
throne may be likened the patriarch, who repre- 
sents on his earthly throne a person of the Trinity, 
namely, Christ. The sanctuary of the beatified, 
an earthly paradise, has God made and no human 
hand * !" 

The thoughts in which a man completes his 
daily routine of life demand a mental terminus; 
they seek to connect themselves with whatever is 
supremely high. Strange as the result was in this 
case, yet to the power of the priests founded thereon 
is to be ascribed the salvation of the Greek na- 
tionality. Under this protection the Greeks che- 
rished and cultivated that hatred to the Turks, and 
that peculiar character, of which they now reap the 
advantage. 

On the decay of the Ottoman Poxcer. 

Thus we behold two hostile and irreconcilable 
communities in one state : yet they are closely 
linked together ; the rulers draw vital force, and 
ever fresh renovation from the vanquished. We 
revert to the former. 

Weighing once more the facts we have observed 
in their case, we perceive that the instinct of des- 
potism here contrived for itself three organs ; first, 
immediate slaves, who, commencing with personal 
service, executed the will of their lord in peace or 
war; men promoted for their talents, brought up 
in the ways of the Ottomans, of tried obedience, old 
in their master's favour, and partakers in the 
splendour of his sway ; next, that twofold body- 
guard, mounted and on foot, that was wont to 
guard the sultan when he reposed, and to accom- 
pany his victorious career when he took the field ; 
these as well as the former were slaves of the 
serai, but their slavery involved a kind of prece- 
dence over others : lastly, those feudatories that 
held the conquered empire partitioned out among 
them, and who hoped to conquer and share among 
them the rest of the world, though without ever 
acquiring any possession independent of the sul- 
tan's nod. We perceive that this so constituted 
organization had need of two things : it needed for 
its animation a man filled himself with a vivid 
spirit and free and mighty impulses; and to give 
it movement and activity it required continual 
campaigns and progressive conquests; in a word, 
war and a warlike chief. 

All this seemed to subsist under Soliman in 
almost complete perfection. When it was consi- 
dered how an inviolable usage imposed some bril- 
liant enterprise or another on every new sultan, 
how even the religious ambition of being the buil- 
der of new mosques, was connected with the con- 
quests of new countries, for through these they 
were to be endowed; and how no enduring resist- 

* At the end of the 'laropia 7raTpmpx<K>'/- Turcogr. lib. iii. 
p. 184. Ka#«)9 rj 0eoTi]$ KaOrtrai eirl Bpovov els tov ovpavov, 
ovTtii? Kai avTO? 6 8ecnr6->is 6 cpepuiv t'ijv eluova tov evor t»js 
ayia? rpiddo? Xpia-ov tov Qeov i;,u5i/ KaOn^ai 67rt tov Oeiov 
Opovov tov entyeLov. Evai (ecr-n) de nal \eyeTat av-6? 6 i/aor 
Tris nan/J-aKapicTTOv eniyeio? ovpavos, vea Ziwv Trjv onotav 
enTLvev 6 Kvpios, Kal ova avOpcoiros. This is founded on older 
opinions, such as put forth by Simeon Thessalonicensis, 
7repi tov vaov. 



12 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



ance was to be expected either in the east from 
the manifestly weak empire of the Persians, nor 
in the west from Christendom, which had fallen 
into discord about the truth of its faith ; under 
such circumstances even intelligent men might 
well fear that the course of these victories would 
carry the Turks to universal monarchy. 

Whilst men thought thus, whilst they were filled 
with dismay and uttered gloomy forebodings as 
they compared the might and the valour of the 
Ottomans with those of the western nations, whilst 
it was shown in treatises that the Turks were in- 
vincible, and why they were so*, just then altera- 
tions took place among the latter which produced 
an essential revolution in the condition of their 
empire. 

The empire needed warlike sovereigns; it began 
to experience a dearth of them : it needed the un- 
swerving discipline of its military institutions, and 
its slave education ; this became corrupted : it 
needed continual conquests ; they began to fail. 
Our purpose is to show how all this took place. 

TJie Sultans. 

The contrast has long been remarked in the 
west, that subsisted between all the sultans before 
Soliman and all those after him. Nor has it escaped 
the notice of the orientals. It is alleged that the 
grand vizier Mustafa Kiuperly frequently com- 
plained, that all the sultans since Soliman were 
without exception fools or tyrants ; that there was 
no help for the empire if it did not get rid of that 
most perverted stocky. 

Now as Selim II. may be regarded as the first 
founder of this new line, as he shall have had a 
great influence over it, whether by his example or 
by the qualities inherited from him by nature, it is 
a very remarkable fact that he did not obtain the 
throne by right, but in preference to a better bro- 
ther by his mother's craft and his father's cruel 
and violent deed. 

Soliman had an elder son, the son of his youth, 
Mustafa, who was just like himself, and of whom 
the people thought that they were indebted for him 
to a special favour of Heaven, so noble, brave, and 
high-hearted they thought him; of whom his father 
deemed that he reflected the virtues of his ances- 
tors, and who was wont to say of himself, he hoped 
yet to do honour to the house of OthmanJ. 

How came it then that Soliman bore such ill 
will to the inheritor of those qualities by which he 
had achieved his own greatness ? 

If it must be admitted on close consideration 
that the institution of a harem is intimately asso- 
ciated with a military despotism, and that an ex- 
clusive passion for one woman is incompatible with 
it, because it attaches to home and gives occasion to 
many uncongenial influences, there was reason for 
serious apprehension in the very fact that Soliman 

* E. g. " Discorso sopra l'imperio del Turco, il quale 
ancorche sia tirannico e violento, e per essere durabile contra 
l'opinione d'Aristotele et invincibile per ragioni naturali," 
MS. Busbek and Folieta argue to the same effect. 

t Marsigli, Stato militare del imperio Ottomano, 1, 6, p. 28. 

X Navagero, Relazione ; classical on this point. " La fama 
che ha di liberale et giusto fa che ogn'uno lo brama ;" p. 
246, a. "Solimano ha detto che Mustafa li par sia degno 
descendente della virtu de suoi passati;" p. 247, b. "Mustafa 
per essere piu delli altri magnanimo etgeneroso . . . suole dire 
che egli e nato ancor per far honore alia casa Ottomana." 



devoted himself wholly to his slave Roxolana; but it 
was truly alarming that he broke through the estab- 
lished order of the harem, deposed the mother of 
the heir apparent, to whom the foremost rank 
belonged of right, and raised Roxolana to the con- 
dition of a wife. 

I find a letter of Codignac, a French ambassa- 
dor at the Porte *, who relates the following origin 
of this event: — Roxolana wished to found a mosque 
for the weal of her soul, but the mufti told her that 
the pious works of a slave turned only to the ad- 
vantage of her lord ; upon this special ground So- 
liman declared her free. This was immediately 
followed by the second step. The free woman would 
no longer comply with, those desires of Soliman 
which the bondswoman had obeyed, for the fetwa 
of the mufti declared that this could not be with- 
out sin. Passion on the one side and obstinacy on 
the other at last brought it about that Soliman 
made her his wife. A treaty of marriage was ra- 
tified, and Roxolana was secured an income of 5000 
sultaninsf. 

This being done, the next and most perilous 
thing was, that Roxolana desired to procure the 
succession for one of her own sons instead of Mus- 
tafa. This was no secret to any one. It was sup- 
posed that she had no other motive for connecting 
herself with the grand vizier Rusthen by bestow- 
ing one of her daughters on him in marriage J. 
When it was seen that Rusthen sought every where 
to establish sandshaks and agas of his own selec- 
tion, and to make himself friends by gifts out of 
his great wealth § (it was said that he possessed 
fifteen millions, and could roof his house with gold), 
that he promoted his brother to be capudani derja, 
captain of the sea, all this was looked on as point- 
ing one way, namely, that in case of Soliman's 
death, the capudan derja should keep Mustafa, 
who had seated himself in Amasia, away from 
Europe ||. Soliman's personal intentions were re- 
garded with decidedly less alarm. If Mustafa's 
mother, who was with him, and whom he esteemed 
very highly, daily warned him to beware of poison, 
it was on the part of her fortunate rival she feared 
it, and as it is said not without reason. The Turks 
believed that the struggle would first break out 
after the father's death, and that the result would 
very possibly turn out fatally for the empire. 

But in this they were mistaken. The very quali- 
ties that seemed destined to exalt Mustafa to be 
the head of the empire, those which made him 
dear to the people, were perilous to him with his 

* A Monsignor di Lodeva, Arab, in Venetia, 3 Ott. 1553. 
Lettere di Principi, iii. 141. 

t Ubert Folieta gives a precisely similar account in his 
De causis magnitudinis imperii Turcici, vol. iii. 

t Navagero. "Li disegni dellamadre, cosi caraal Signore, 
et quelli del magnifico Rusten, che ha tant' autorita, non 
tendono ad altro fine che a questo, di fare in caso che morisse 
il patre herede del imperio Sultan Selim, figliuolo di lei et 
cognato di lui." 

§ Commentarii delle cause delle guerre mosse in Cipro 
MS. Informatt. xvii. 73. " Si e veduto un di questi (gran- 
visiri) chiamato Rusten venire a tante richezze che lascio 
morendo 15 millioni d'oro." 

|| Navagero : " Capitano di mare e suo fratello, il quale 
fara che continui in quest' officio per questo respetto, o 
levandolo mettera persona confidentissima : che aprohibire 
il Sultan Mustafa dalla successione dello stato, non e via piu 
secura d'impedirli il passo che con un armata." 



ON THE DECAY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



father. If every one wished him the inheritance 
of the throne, if the janissaries gave open proof 
how earnest was the good will they bore him. if 
not a slave of his father's passed through the 
range of his government without being captivated 
by his kindness or his bounty, the people remarked 
how good it was of Mustafa, that with such general 
good wishes in his behalf he never showed any 
resentment at his father's bestowing far greater 
marks of favour on his brothers than on him * ; 
but the father remarked nothing but those con- 
nexions which seemed to him of a suspicious cha- 
racter. The name of Mustafa seemed to throw 
him into agitation. It did the son little service 
that he sometimes sent presents of handsome 
horses to the Porte ; that when he was aware of 
his father's unfavourable feelings he never turned 
his foot, never turned his face, as he said himself, 
in the direction of his father's court, that he might 
not provoke his anger. Finally, when an alliance 
was talked of which Mustafa proposed forming 
with Persia, when Rusthen complained of the de- 
votion of the janissaries to the person of the for- 
mer in a campaign in the east, Soliman set out 
thither in anger and summoned his son before him. 
The latter might undoubtedly have escaped by 
flight, he might probably have been able to resist ; 
but his mollah told him that eternal blessedness was 
better than dominion over the whole earth ; and, 
guiltless as he was, he could hardly bring himself 
to fear the worst. He obeyed the siunmons, hav- 
ing first divested himself even of his dagger. The 
worst did befal. The mutes fell upon him ; Soli- 
man looked out from behind a thick curtain, and 
with threatening eyes urged them on : they stran- 
gled Mustafa +. 

The padichah had still two sons left, both by 
Roxolana, Sehm, the elder, on whom the right 
of succession now devolved, and Bajazeth, the 
younger, more like his father, more affable and 
more beloved, but destined by the inveterate usage 
of the Turks to certain death. After many a 
quarrel, and many an attempt at insurrection on 
the'part of the younger, open war at length broke 
out between the two brothers during their father's 
life. Mustafa, a pacha of whom we shall have fre- 
quent occasion to make mention, boasted that it 
was he decided the contest. He said, that Selim 
having actually fled the fight, he hastened after 
him, and went so far as to seize his horse by the 
bridle ; whereupon Bajazeth, seeing his brother 
return and the fight renewed, was seized with de- 
spair and detennined to fly to Persia J. He fled, 
but he did not succeed in escaping. The shah 

* Xavagero. "Una cosa e maravigHosa in lui, che si 
trova havere mai non tentato di fare novita alcuna contra il 
patre, et srando li fratelli, figliuoli dell' altra matxe, vicini a 
Constantinopoli et uno anco nel serraglio, esso pero tanto 
lontano sta quieto. 

t See the extract from Busbequii Legationis Turcica? 
Epistola i. p. 50, which is the source of most of the narratives 
of this transaction, and that from the Lettera di Michiele 
Codignac a Monsignor di Lodeva, Lettere di Principi. Hi. 
145, which, though less noticed, is more circumstantial and 
accurate. 

t Floriani, Descritrione dell' imperio lurch. MS. 230. 
" Non resto egli (il Bassa Mustafa) di ricordar modesta- 
mente al Signore che quando era Beglierbei di Maras et 
ch'egli (Selim) era gia posto in fuga da Bajazet suo fratello, 
lo prese per le redine del cavallo andandogli prontamente in 
ajuto." 



allowed Soliman's executioner to seek him even 
there, and to strangle him. So hard was the 
struggle necessary to enable Selim to ascend the 
throne of Othman. It is not unlikely that his 
younger, it is in the highest degree probable that 
his elder brother would have inherited those war- 
like and manly qualities by which that house had 
become so great : but Selim, who preferred the 
society of eunuchs and of women, and the habits of 
the serai to the camp, who wore away his days in 
sensual enjoyments, in drunkenness and indolence, 
had no such gifts. Whoever beheld him and saw 
his face inflamed with Cyprus wine, and his short 
figure rendered corpulent by slothful indulgence, 
expected in him neither the warrior nor the leader 
of warriors. In fact nature and habit unfitted him 
to be the supreme head, that is the life and the 
soul, of that warlike state *. 

With him begins the series of those inactive 
sultans, in whose dubious character we may trace 
one main cause of the decay of the Ottoman for- 
tunes. Many were the circumstances that contri- 
buted to their ruin. 

The ancient sultans took their sons with them to 
the field, or sent them out upon enterprises of their 
own without any jealousy. Othman was still living 
when his son Orchan accomplished the most import- 
ant thing effected in his day, the conquest of Prusa. 
Again, the most important event under Orchan, 
the expedition to Europe, was accomplished under 
the command of his son Soliman. Succeeding sul- 
tans departed from this practice. They kept their 
sons aloof from themselves and from war, in a re- 
mote government under the inspection of a pacha -f*. 
At last it was thought better to shut up the heir 
apparent as a prisoner till the moment he was to 
ascend the throne J. 

But when that moment was come, when he was 
become sultan, what was then his business ? Mar- 
sigli narrates how the privilege of the janissaries, 
of being compelled to take the field only when the 
sultan did so likewise, was taken from them by 
Soliman. It is a question whom Soliman most in- 
jured by this measure, the janissaries or his own 
race. Since the janissaries, the elite of the forces, 
were indispensable, the sultans would have con- 
tinued under the necessity of marching with them 
in every war ; they would not have sat down the 
livelong year in the harem, which was now become 
the most pernicious of all their institutions, and 
wasted there all the energies of life in effeminate 
pleasures. 

Some nobler qualities may be discovered in no 
few even of the latter sultans. The education and 
the habits of the serai, of which I have already 
spoken, but above all their unlimited despotic 

* Barbaro, 294. " Delle quali laudabile conditioni (di 
Solimano) r.on viene gia detto ne anco dalli propria Musul- 
mani che d' alcuna Selim sia stato herede, benche di tanti 
regni sia stato possessor. Questo principe e di statuxa piu 
tosto piccola che altrimente, pieno di carne, con faccia rossa 
e piu tosto spaventosa, d'eta di 55 anni, a quaK e commun 
judicio che pochi n'habbi ad aggiungere per la vita che 
tiene." 

t Relatione di Constantinopoli et Gran Turco, MS. 531. 
" Quando li figliuoli del Grand Turco sono di eta di 13 anni, 
si circoncidono et fra 13 giorni li convien parrire et si man- 
dano per governo in qualche luogo di Natolia et in vita del 
Gran Turco sempre sono tenuti fuora della citta." 

t Muradgea d'Ohsson, Tableau general de l'empire Otto- 
man : Paris, ITS", fol. i. 294. 



14 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



power, by virtue of which they were not bound to 
regard, unless they pleased, any fetwa of their 
mufti, a power so exalted, that their excesses were 
declared to be the result of divine inspirations, 
enticed them to give way to their more ignoble 
qualities, and to suffer these gradually to become 
their second nature *. Such absolute power is not 
made for man. The people are not so petty and 
so mean as to be able to endure it. Neither will a 
ruler ever be found great enough to exercise it 
without being himself thereby utterly perverted. 

What fair hopes did Amurath III., the son of 
Selim, afford ? In striking contrast with his father, 
he appeared temperate, manly, given to study, and 
not averse to arms. He displayed, too, a very 
praiseworthy beginning of his reign. What I read 
of him in our Relationi strikes me as especially ad- 
mirable in a Turkish sultan. Every one is ac- 
quainted with that horrid custom, in compliance 
with which the sultans made it their first business 
after the death of their father to have their bro- 
thers murdered +. It did not exist in primitive 
times ; the brothers of Othman fought in his bat- 
tles;, but it gradually became established and in- 
violable. Now Amurath, says the Relatione, being 
tender-hearted, and unable to endure the sight of 
blood, would neither seat himself on the throne of 
the sultans, nor have his accession proclaimed, till 
he had first secured from death his nine brothers 
who lived with him in the serai £. He talked on 
this matter with his muallim, with the mufti, and 
other learned men. But so imperative seemed the 
necessity of this practice, that he could make no 
impression upon any of them ; on the contrary, he 
was himself constrained to give way, after holding 
ovit for eighteen hours. He then summoned the 
chief of the mutes, showed him his father's corpse, 
and gave him nine handkerchiefs to strangle his 
nine brothers. He gave them him, but with tears. 

There was in him a certain tincture of humanity, 
a trace of poetical studies, and a sort of resolution. 
Once, when he had the history of his ancestors read 
to him, he asked the by-standers which of the wars 
carried on by his predecessors they thought the 
most difficult ? They answered, " Without doubt 
the Persian." " That," he rejoined, " will I under- 
take § ;" and he did so. German ambassadors 
described him as clever, sober, and just, a master 
in the art of rewarding and punishing || . 

Such he was in the first beginning of his reign. 
But not all men faithfully retain the character 
evinced by them in their youth. The process of 

* Muradgea d'Ohsson, Tableau General de l'emp. Ott. 
Code religieux, i. 95. 

t Relatione di Const, e di Gran Turco. " Per obligo di 
lege di stato Ottomano fa il successore strangulare tutti li 
fratelli maschi che si trovano nel serraglio, et se qualchune 
si truova fuori, lo manda incontinente a far morire sino 
bisognando con farli guerra." 

X lb. " Sultan Murat essendo pietoso dinon potervedere 
far sangue, stette 18 hore, che non volse sedere in seggio 
imperiale ne publicare la sua venuta nella citta, desiderando 
e trattando prima di liberare li 9 fratelli maschi carnali. . . . 
Piangendo mando li muti." Leunclavius and Thuanus (lib. 
lix.) allude obscurely to this. 

_ § Morosini, Rel. MS. 372. " Essendoli risposto, che indu- 
bitamente la piu difficile era questa che potevano far li 
Signori Ottomani con Persiani : replied Sua Maesta, La ho 
in animo di far io." 

|| Gerlachius ad Hailandum, 1 Aug. 1576, in Crusii 
Turcogr. 499. 



development goes on even in manhood, and not 
always from harshness to mildness, from turbu- 
lence to sedateness. Some there are who, from 
modest, staid, and quiet youths, become passionate, 
boisterous, and insufferable men. 

Amurath's character unfolded itself far other- 
wise than had been expected. In the first place, 
he gave himself up to inactive retirement. Per- 
sonally he shunned war, and even avoided the 
chase *, and passed his day in silence and melan- 
choly, shut up in the seclusion of the palace with 
mutes, dwarfs, and eunuchs. He now suffered two 
insatiable passions to obtain the mastery over him ; 
the one was the passion for women, which he in- 
dulged to the destruction of all his energies, and to 
the violent aggravation of his predisposition to 
epilepsy ; the other was the passion for gold. The 
story had run of Selim, how he had the sequins 
that flowed in to him from many a realm cast into 
a huge ball, and rolled by the mutes into the cis- 
tern in which was contained his private treasure, 
the chasineh f. In Amurath was observed an 
almost involuntary fondness of coined metal. It 
sounds almost like a tale of mythology, when we 
read that he had made for him a quadrangular 
marble pit like a well, into which he every year 
cast nearly two and a half millions of gold, all in 
sequins and sultanins. He would strip the gold 
ornaments from old works of art, coin them into 
money, bearing the characters of his name, and 
throw them into the pit. Over the entrance to it, 
which was fastened up with the utmost care, stood 
the bed in which he slept +. Be this as it may, 
certain it is that the tribute of repeated presents 
was a sure means for securing the continuance of 
his favour, and that appointments very soon be- 
came venal. It may be asserted, that he, the 
head of this empire, let himself be suborned as it 
were. So strongly was he influenced by his unfor- 
tunate craving for pelf. 

When the creature had gone through his daily 
routine, that is to say when he had given that 
audience during which the presents brought by 
ambassadors or petitioners were carried before the 
windows so that he could have sight of them, — an 
audience in which he did nothing but give ear to 
the ambassadors, who were led before him with 
almost running speed and then led off as rapidly §, 

* Soranzo, Relationi o diario di viaggio MS. "Lontano 
dei negotii — non essendo punto bellicoso ne amatore d'esser- 
citii militari, — ritenendosi insino dalle caccie, particolar 
piacere de suoi precessori." 

t Relatione di Const, e G. T. " Selim comincid ad usare 
di fondere tutto l'oro che veniva dall' entrate de regni et 
fame una palla grande, quale faceva mettere rozzolando per 
terra dalli muti in quella cisterna accio non rivelassero 
niente." 

I Relatione di 1594. " Nella propria camera ha fatto una 
buca quadra molto profonda, in guiza d'un pozzo, cinta di 
finissimi marmi et la via impiendo tutta d'oro." The Rel. 
di Const, e G. T. agrees with this. " Sono le bocche serrate 
con tre coperchi di ferro conchiave et sopra vi sono murate 
da tre palmi, che non appare ci sia cosa alcuna." 

§ Soranzo of his own audience : " Ciascheduno era messo 
in mezzo de capigi bassi cioe mastri di camera, et pigliato 
strettamente per le mani e maniche era condotto a piedi del 
signore, dove inginocchiatosi gli veniva porto da uno di loro 
due una manica della sua veste a baciare, il che fatto era 
reconduto indietro con la faccia sempre volta verso il Sig- 
nore : et intanto che si faceva questa ceremonia, passava il 
presente portato da i capigi, cioe da portieri, dinanzi a una 
finestra della camera del signore accio lo potesse vedere." 



VIZIERS. 



15 



stare at them with his large, lacklustre, melancholy 
eyes, and perhaps nod his head to them ; when 
he had done this he went back to his garden, 
where in deep sequestered spots his women played 
before him, danced and sang, or his dwarfs made 
sport for him, or his mutes, awkward and mounted 
on as awkward horses, engaged with him in ludi- 
crous combats, in which he struck now at the rider 
now at the horse, or where certain Jews performed 
lascivious comedies before him *. 

Was this a fit head for a state founded on war, 
and having its existence in war ? 

Neither were his successors so. Our Relationi 
are silent as to Mehemet ; but we know indepen- 
dently of them that this weak monarch was less 
a ruler than he was ruled. Ahmed was nobly en- 
dowed by nature. He ascended the throne in his 
fourteenth year; it was not till near the end of 
his reign that he was a man. He then showed him- 
self clement, active, full of noble designs. He less 
regretted the loss of ships taken by the Christians 
when they were his own than when they were the 
property of poor Moslem. He chose rather to de- 
clare a man insane who had thrown a stone at him, 
than to punish himf. He revived and maintained 
an incorruptible justice, and personally sifted all 
grievances to the bottom ; highly was he reverenced 
for this by the people, who reaped the immediate 
benefit of these qualities. But he had far greater 
things still in view. Daily to be seen on horseback, 
in the chase, busy with the bow and quiver, his 
thoughts were bent on war. When he read the 
deeds of Soliman it seemed his longing not only to 
equal these but to surpass them J. 

But nothing of the kind befel. Since the empire, 
just then weakened by wars and insurrections, pro- 
bably wanted in fact the strength for great enter- 
prizes ; since the sovereign was thus perhaps with- 
held from actual deeds, and compelled to entertain 
himself with mere intentions, the result was that 
his mind, which could not put forth its whole force 
in great enterprises, was easily disgusted and sati- 
ated with pettier occupations. Unlimited power 
reacted singularly on Ahmed. He was neither 
used to encounter nor inclined to endure contradic- 
tion from others; but he constantly contradicted 
himself. His thoughts seemed often in direct vari- 
ance with each other; he repented of his acts in the 
moment even of their performance; he recalled his 
orders in the very beginning of their execution. Even 
his daily life was filled with a violent spirit of un- 
rest; there was no place, no occupation, no enjoy- 
ment in which he did not soon find dissatisfaction §. 

* Relatione di 1594. 

+ Valieri, Relatione di Constantinopoli : " Si dimostra 
assai osservante della lorolegge et della giustitia et del bene 
de suoi sudditi, il che lo fa amare del popolo tutto, et quando 
puo havere notitia d'uno aggravio, se ne risente grande- 
mente e ne fa la provisione. Et negli accidenti delle gallere 
prese da Fiorentini et Spagnuoli s'andara consolando con 
dire che la perdita non fosse di Mussulamani, ma toccasse al 
suo solo interesse. Non inchina al sangue, anzi piu tosto in 
alcune occurrenze si b dimostrato di natura mite." ' 

t "Spiriti grandi nutrisce con lamemoria di sultan Soliman, 
che va frequentemente leggendo con pensiero non pure 
d'imitarlo ma di superarlo." 

§ Ibid. " La mal cupidita troppo cercando perde et dopo 
molta fatica subitamente getta quello che avidamente ha 
capito, et dal abondanza delle delizie nasce la satieta et 
dalla satieta la nausea. La leggierezza quasi turbine volge 
intorno tutte le cose." 



Thus all his endeavours were destined to run to 
waste, and his schemes to vanish in air. 

Among all his successors there was absolutely 
but one possessed of genuine innate -vigour; this 
was Amurath IV. But we shall see how his cha- 
racter turned out, and how little he was a sovereign 
capable of ruling a people. 

In short, from the period of Soliman's unfortu- 
nate marriage with Roxolana, the organization of 
the Ottoman polemarchy began to lack the head in 
which its life was centred. The sultans continued 
to be emirs like their ancestors, with a warlike 
confederacy of slaves. What must needs have been 
the result, so soon as the spirit of the confederacy 
became alienated from the emir ? If the despotism 
had need of the slaves, the slaves had need of the 
despot. 

Viziers. 

But can it have been that no remedy was to be 
found in the constitution against an evil, the inevi- 
table occurrence of which, at least occasionally, 
might have been so easily foreseen ? 

There exists among the Ottomans an institution 
fitted to prevent the effects of incapacity in the sul- 
tan, the institution of the Veziri-aasam, that is of 
the grand vizier. This officer they are accustomed 
to style an unlimited deputy, an essential feature 
in the world's order, nay a lord of the empire *. A 
great portion of the public weal depends on him, 
since he holds the administration, and when the 
sultan is incapable the whole executive power, in his 
hands. The grand difficulty is only to find a man, 
who, taking upon him his master's duties, possesses 
likewise all the virtues which the latter wants. 

Now it must be admitted that under Selim II. 
this power was committed to the hands of the 
fittest man that could be found, a Bosnian named 
Mehemet. He was brought from the house of his 
uncle, a priest of Saba, as a young slave into the 
serai; and there he had climbed thus high in dig- 
nity. As Selim seldom saw or spoke to any one 
but him; as the sultan was used to leave the whole 
routine of business to him, so that all propositions 
from foreign ambassadors, all reports from the in- 
terior of the kingdom, were submitted to him alone, 
and all measures in consequence were determined 
by him; as he had the appointment to all posts, 
and the disposal of all honours and dignities, as the 
whole body of civil and criminal jurisdiction rested 
with him, we may admit the truth of Barbaro's re- 
mark that he was the only ear in the empire to 
hear, and the only head to determine. The weal 
and the woe, the substance and the life of every 
subject were in the hands of this slave of Saba. It 
was matter of amazement how he contrived to ful- 
fil all his various avocations f. Not only did he 
hold his public divan on the four appointed days 
from an early hour till noon, giving audience upon 

* Hammer, Staatsverfassung der Osmanen, i. 451 ; ii. 
84. 

t Barbaro, 296 : "Chi potra dunque con ragione compren- 
dere che basti il tempo a tante e cosi diverse attioni et come 
vi possa esser tanta intelligenza che a cosi importante go- 
verno supplisca ? ne pero e mai impedita audienza a qual- 
sivoglia ancora che minima persona ad ogni sua commoda 
satisfattione." Not a trace of this whole passage is to he 
found in the copy of this Relatione in the Tesoro Politico, i. 
p. 87. 



16 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



so many diverse questions that the dragoman of 
Venice, for example, thought it necessary to be 
constantly present that he might be ready with his 
answer on the spot, should any unexpected com- 
plaint be sent in from the frontiers; but he also 
gave audience in his own house both on the other 
days, and on these after the close of the divan. 
Every man, though he were the lowest, might 
address him; the hall was always full; yet not a 
sound was heard but that of the man who was 
stating his case, or of the secretary reading a pe- 
tition. The decision was given on the spot, irre- 
vocably, and for the most part to the satisfaction 
of the parties concerned. Presents of slaves and 
horses, of costly textures, silks, and, above all, gold 
flowed abundantly into his house. There was a 
running fountain of gold therein, says Barbaro*. 
Rivers of gold and silver streamed into it, says 
Floriani. Nor was he a man to hoard up these 
good things. Three thousand men ate daily at his 
table. In no few places in Europe and Asia were 
seen mosques, baths, and aqueducts, bridges and 
dams erected by him. He was particularly fond 
of founding caravanserais, in which travellers were 
entertained gratis for three days together with 
bread, rice, and meat, and also with fodder for 
their horses. 

Mehemet was not puffed up by this fortune, this 
power and greatness. He is one of the noblest of 
his nation whose memory has come down to us. 
He was always found kind and pacific, sober and 
religious, without vindictiveness, and without rapa- 
city. Even at the age of sixty-five his aspect was 
that of a hale and vigorous man, handsome in per- 
son, tall and of stately presence +. 

Two things perhaps conduced to the moderation 
of his character. If it is one of the most difficult 
problems for regular constitutions to counteract 
the arbitrary will of the higher functionaries of 
state, a problem for the sake of which recourse is 
mainly had to them, it is on the other hand a most 
remarkable fact, that the problem is in a certain 
degree solved by despotism itself ; not however by 
law but by caprice, by the caprice of the despot's 
self. Mehemet saw his fortune and his life at the 
mercy of any small error, any trifling fault, that 
might produce a bad impression on the sultan. 
Add to this, that at this time there were besides 
the grand vizier others too at the Porte, the so 

* Barbaro, 287 : " Hora no quali crede la S. V. siano quelle 
(le richezze) di Mehemet Bassa : poiche oltre 1'infiniti 
donativi minori ne sono molti ancora di 20, 30 et aneo di 
piu di 52 miglia scudi l'uno ; ma qui non debbo io allar- 
garmi, lasciando che da se medesime le S. V. lo considerino, 
sapendo che non si fa mentione di grado o d'altra cosa di 
gratia o di giustitiain quell' amplissimo imperio che eglinoii 
ne sia riconosciuto abondantemente, aggiongendovi di piu 
che ogn' uno per essere stabilito et accresciuto di honore et 
d'utilita lo tributa quasi del continuo, onde si puo quasi 
dire che sempre nella casa sua corre un fonte d'oro." Of 
this passage too, nine leaves before the former one, there is 
no trace in the printed copy. 

+ Barbaro : " Nelle fatiche mai manca, responde grata- 
mente, non s'insuperbisce per la suprema dignita che tiene, 
ne manco per essere genero di Signore.— Ha la moglie 
giovane assai bella, et con tutto che sia egli piu di 65 anni, 
si fa pero piu giovane : et ogni anno fa un figluiolo, ma tutte 
gli muorono." Besides Barbaro we have also made use of 
Fioriani (223—229, MS.), a classical authority as to Mehe- 
met 



called viziers of the cupola; who, though their busi- 
ness seemed to be chiefly to obey and execute orders, 
yet they sometimes, though unfrequently, had ac- 
cess to the sultan, as for instance, when the latter 
rode to the mosque, or when he held a divan on 
horseback, or when it was afforded them by a confe- 
deracy in the serai. Among these were two vehe- 
ment opponents of Mehemet, Piali, who was also 
a son-in-law of Selim, and that Mustafa who de- 
cided the battle against Bajazeth, and who believed 
himself to possess no small claims on his master's 
gratitude. Sometimes they succeeded in carrying 
some point against him. When Selim thought of 
distinguishing his reign by some exploit, they were 
for an attack on Cyprus; Mehemet was for a bolder 
enterprise. The sultan's nature inclined to the 
easier undertaking, and its speedy success in the 
hands of his rivals was near bringing Mehemet 
into jeopardy. His intense inward emotion was 
visible in his face when he spoke of their persecu- 
tions *. He now took double heed to his ways. It 
were impossible to describe the deliberation, the 
forethought, with which he engaged personally in 
the smallest things. That he might not provoke 
envy he forbore from adorning Constantinople with 
his architectural works. 

He erected there nothing but a small mosque; 
yet this was the monument of his misfortune. It 
will be remembered that he was the son-in-law of 
the sultan. He buried his twelve children in that 
mosque. 

He was successful in maintaining his position at 
the summit of power under three sovereigns. The 
last two, Selim and Amurath, were indebted to him 
for their quiet accession to the throne. For Selim's 
sake he kept the death of Soliman before Sighet 
concealed. When Selim died he made a secret of 
his death likewise. He privately summoned young 
Amurath from Asia. Mehemet welcomed him in 
the garden, where he arrived by night sooner than 
expected, and under the tree where he had sat 
himself downf, and led him into the imperial 
apartments. How completely seemed the whole 
power of the empire to be then in his hands. He 
made the sultan sit still, they say, sent for the 
young man's mother, and asked her, was that her 
son, Sultan Amurath I when she replied in the affir- 
mative he raised his hands to heaven, thanked 
God, and offered up the first prayer for the weal of 
the new sultan. 

Now, if the arbitrary power of the sultans was 
not unprofitable for the viziership, so long as the 
former remained within certain bounds, it could 
not fail to be fatal so soon as it was guided rather 
by distrust than by prudence, and so soon as it 
came to be exercised too often. 

* Relatione del Barbaro delli negotii trattati di lui, MS. 380. 
"II Bassa in estremo si dolse di quello ch'era successo, 
et venendo alle lagrime si rammaricava quanto fosse da suoi 
emuli perseguitato, si come anco molte volte ha fatto meco 
con molta afflittione dell' animo suo." 

t Morosini, Constantinopoli del 1584, MS. 353. "Trovatz 
una galeotta gionse a mezza notte in Constantinopoli, el 
accostandosi al giardino del suo serraglio, non trovato i 
Buttigi Basso il quale havea ordine d'aprirli la porta che 
entra in serraglio ; smontato delta galeotta si ripose a sedin 
nel giardino fuori della mura sott' un albero, nel qua 
luogho di poi ha fatto fare una bellissima fontana." Th< 
rest is told at full length. A similar account is given it 
Sagredo, Memorie Istoriche de Monarchi Ottoman ni, p. 617 



VIZIERS. 



17 



Mehemet's well-earned reputation caused Amu- 
rath III. some jealousy, and he favoured the subor- 
dinate viziers of the cupola in opposition to him *. 
But before this was productive of any mischief to 
Mehemet, he was murdered by an incensed timarli, 
whom he had deprived of his timar, perhaps with 
justice, and who made his way into the vizier's 
house in the disguise of a beggar. Thus fell a 
man with whom, as Floriani says, the virtue of the 
Turks descended to the grave. 

At least vigour and dignity were missed in the 
viziers who succeeded him. Viziers of characters 
mutually the most opposite followed each other in 
rapid succession. From the hands of Achmet, 
first an opponent and now the successor of Mehe- 
met, a good old man on the whole, who, above all, 
would not endure a thought of corruption f, the 
administration was transmitted to that Mustafa 
who had fought against Bajazeth and against 
Cyprus. Though seventy years old, and of fear- 
fully repulsive aspect, with thick brows overhang- 
ing his eyes, and shadowing his swarthy features ; 
though infamous for his cruel deeds, especially in 
Cyprus, Mustafa yet knew how to conceal that im- 
petuous and violent temper, of which he had so 
often given proof, under polished manners, flatter- 
ing speeches, and a gracious manner of recep- 
tion. 

For a while he exercised only the functions with- 
out the titles and dignities of his office : it is said 
that he laid violent hands on himself in disgust at 
his not receiving the seals J. Among the viziers 
of the second rank was an Albanian from the 
neighbourhood of Scutari, named Sinan, who alone 
of seven brothers had remained in the serai till he 
reached one of the four highest dignities, that of a 
chokahdar (who supports the hem of the sultan's 
mantle) whence a prospect opened to him of ap- 
pointments to important offices. Upon this he 
took advantage of Mehemet's quarrel with Mustafa, 
to ingratiate himself with the former, and of Amu- 
rath's incipient aversion to Mehemet to make good 
his footing with the sultan §. The men of the 
west noticed in him a striking resemblance to car- 
dinal Granvella. This is no compliment to the 
cardinal. Sinan paraded his shameless want of 
principle openly and without reserve ||, and laughed 
when he thought he had appalled any one by his 
bravadoes. It was a fact, that he had been at an 
earlier date successful in some warlike exploits in 
Arabia and on the coasts of Africa. Upon his now 
marching against the Persians he boasted that he 
would fetch away the shah from Casbin and bring 
him to Constantinople ; and when he came back, 
not only without the shah, but even without hav- 

* Soranzo, Diario MS. 465. " Venuto al imperio Sultan 
Amurath, comincio Mehemet declinare della solita gratia et 
favore, cercando il Signore ogni occasione di levargli il cre- 
dito et autorita acquistatasi in vita del patre." 

t Floriani : " Haveva (Achmet) piu tosto nobil natura 
che testa di negotii." 

t Soranzo : " Mustafa se ne mori per disperatione, o come 
altri vogliono, s'attossico, come ingratamente remunerato di 
tante imprese da lui condotte a felice fine." 

§ The details of these matters are to he found exclusively 
in Soranzo. 

|| Floriani : " E* Sinan amhitioso inconstante contumelioso 
enfiato imprudente impudente superbo e nella pratica senza 
nessuna sorte di maniera civile. E ancho chiamato da 
Turchi multo aventuroso." Soranzo agrees in this unfavour- 
able estimate of his character. 



ing achieved anything worth mentioning, he never 
theless bragged that he had conquered a country 
for fifty sandshaks. But upon his venturing to 
hint, as the war in Persia was proceeding unfa- 
vourably, that it needed a shah to combat a shah, 
— he fell into disgrace. 

Totally different again in character was his suc- 
cessor Sciaus, a Croat, polished, agreeable, affable, 
courteous, and a man of address. On the day 
when having set out to accompany his sister to her 
husband*, he was waylaid by the Turks, taken 
prisoner along with his brother and two sisters, and 
carried into slavery ; he had surely little hopes of 
such high rank and fortune as awaited him. But 
what an unenviable fortune it was after all. Amu- 
rath did not bear with him long. 

Amurath even abandoned the consecrated cus- 
tom of his predecessors, of taking their state func- 
tionaries and viziers only from among their slaves. 
The only leader who acquired renown in the Per- 
sian war was Othman Pacha. Though his father 
had been a beglerbeg, and his mother the daughter 
of a beglerbeg, and he was perhaps of the best 
blood in the empire next to the imperial family; 
the sultan nevertheless fixed his choice on him. 
Othman, however, paid but too soon with his life 
for his gallant enterprises in Persia. 

Upon this Amurath departed still more widely 
from the practice of his forefathers. He turned 
again to the deposed vizier, but only for a short 
while f. Sinan, Sciaus, and a third named Ferhat, 
were seen to relieve each other as it were by turns, 
and there was witnessed the establishment of a 
ceremony for the deposition of a vizier. A mes- 
senger from the sultan suddenly made his appear- 
ance in the apartments assigned the vizier, and 
having first demanded of him the seal he carried 
in his bosom, he made him a sign that he must 
begone, after which he finally clapped the door to 
behind him. It was opened again for the new 
comer, who however had soon to share the same 
fate. Whether it was rather distrust or caprice 
that induced the sultan to make such continual 
changes, at any rate it was believed that his con- 
duct in this respect had much to do with his greedi- 
ness for gold. Sinan sometimes gave 100,000 
sequins, sometimes 200,000 to re-establish himself 
in his vacillating favour. The capudan Cicala made 
no secret of it that he must set out on a cruise for 
booty, to enable him to present the sultan with 
200,000 sequins, otherwise he had reason to fear 
his dismissal ; and in fact his rivals had already 
been summoned to the court 

Things continued under the succeeding sultans 
as under Amurath. Under Achmed, too, we see 
viziers of the most opposite character following 

* So I understand Soranzo, 467 : " Pervenuto in mano de 
Turchi con modo si puo dire tragico, perche accompagnando 
insieme con un suo fratello due sorelle a marito (this how- 
ever admits of another interpretation) diede in una imbo- 
scata de Turchi E il piu trattabile et cortese." 

t Relatione di 1594: "Con diversi pretesti il piu delle 
volte leggieri gli fa, come dicono loro, Manzoli (le nom de 
Mazoul repond a deplaee, destitue, Ohsson II. 272), cioe gli 
depone ; se ben dopoche gli ha fatto vivere un pezzo senza 
dignita et governo et ben mortificati, torna poi con il mezzo 
de danari e de presenti a ricevergli in gratia." 

t Ibid. "II Signore prontamente accetto il consiglio di 
Ferrat Bassa, che lo persuase a chiamar a Constantinopoli 
Giafer, famoso capitano di mare, per accrescere maggior- 
mente al Cicala la gelosia." 



18 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



each other*. Now it is a Mehemet, a pacific, 
quiet, only not sufficiently resolute man, who how- 
ever duly hears every one, and endeavours to com- 
prehend the arguments laid before him. Now it is 
a Nasuf, an irritable and violent Albanian, who 
gives ear to others with reluctance, is always 
prone to the most violent courses, and with whom 
the Venetian bailo complains that he has fallen 
into a sea of difficulties. 

The consequence of this new practice was, that 
whilst the head of the government was constantly 
changed, the manner and course of the administra- 
tion, and the principles and usages of the higher 
functionaries were unsettled and subjected to no 
fewer changes. Above all, it ensued that the 
viziers, too dependent on the caprice of the sultan, 
were incapable of making good the latter's faults. 

If then the sultan himself happened not to be 
the man who could guide the state, if his vizier 
moreover was hindered from acquiring that inde- 
pendence and that stability, without which no ad- 
ministration is possible, on whom then devolved 
the conduct of public affairs, from whom did the in- 
ternal movements of the state receive their impulse ? 

What constantly befals Oriental despotisms oc- 
curred in this case likewise ; here, too, caprice 
called up some one who was able to master it. A 
new system of government grew up, situated in 
the hands of the favourites within the palace, 
such as the sultan's mother, or his wives, or his 
eunuchs. 

We have seen the influence exercised by Roxo- 
lana : under Amurath too the women had much 
sway, and Sinan maintained himself chiefly through 
the protection of a countrywoman of his own, an 
Albanian, in the harem f. But even under this 
sultan the weightiest affairs were in other hands 
than the vizier's. While all other offices were 
fluctuating, Capu Agassi, aga of the gate of bliss, 
as they phrase it, head of the household and chief 
of the white eunuchs, maintained his credit un- 
abated J. He contrived to flatter his master's 
tastes, sometimes with ornaments for the female 
slaves of the harem, which he procured from 
Venice, and for which he sent at times impractica- 
ble orders § ; sometimes with an agreeable present, 
were it only a golden vessel filled with fragrant 
oil. He once contrived to have a sumptuous gal- 

* Valiere speaking of the time of Ahmed: "Lo stato del 
primo visir et d'ogn' altro ministro di quel govemo e lubrico 
assai, restando la sua grandezza appesa a debolissimo et 
picciolissimo filo. Avviene che o per piccolo disgusto che 
prende il re o pure per incontro d'altri accidenti et alle volte 
per brama di novita viene deposto dal govemo et abbando- 
nato e negletto, et se vivo, resta poco men che sepolto nella 
miseria." 

t Of the female superior too of the harem, the Kadun 
Kietchuda, the Rel. di 1594 says; "Venetiani se vagliono 
molto delfavore di questa donna presso il Signore, sendo hor 
mai chiari che ella ottiene cio che vuole et il piu delle volte 
lo fa mutar pensiero." 

X Ibid. " Di natione Venetiano, nato bassamente, ma di 
bellissimo ingegno, e perfido Turco il quale si e tirato tanto 
innanzi nella gratia del Signore, che in la sola sua persona 
ha unito due carichi principali della camera, cioe il titolo et 
cari'co proprio del capi aga et anco di visir bassa." 

§ Ibid. " Ne risente Venetia perche hora il Bailo hora 
mercanti Venetiani hanno da lui carichi et disegni di cose 
quasi impossibili, come ultimamente volse un raso cremisino 
che fosse simplice raro e nondimeno che havesse il fondo del 
rovescio d'oro, et altre cose molto difficile et di gran spesa." 



lery erected in the serai without its being observed 
by Amurath : when it was finished he took him 
thither. It was placed in one of the most beauti- 
ful spots in that garden so remarkable for its fair 
situation, with a prospect over both seas. He 
threw it open before the eyes of the astonished 
sultan, and presented it to him. In this way he 
perfectly secured his good will. He had a thou- 
sand opportunities of turning this to account. As 
he alone laid petitions before the sultan, as he was 
the sole bearer of news to him, it was easy for him 
to exert an influence over his master's opinions. 
He often set persons at liberty who had been im- 
prisoned by a pacha ; frequently he contrived to 
have orders issued contradictory to others that 
had just preceded them, so that the pachas were 
thrown into confusion, and knew not what to do *. 

This manner of government became gradually 
inveterate. One at least of his wives had so much 
influence over Ahmed, that he never refused her a 
request ; she was complete mistress of his inclina- 
tions. But still greater was the influence of the 
kislar aga, that is the chief of the black eunuchs, 
the superintendent more peculiarly of the harem. 
He had always the ear of the sultan, he could 
direct his will as he pleased : how many a project 
of the vizier Nasuf did he singly defeat ! In out- 
ward appearance too, in manners, in the number 
of his servants, he was almost on an equality with 
his master +. It was necessary to keep well with 
both the favourites : to effect this was a prime 
endeavour with foreign ambassadors. The lady 
was to be won with little civilities, with rare per- 
fumes and costly waters J. With the kislar it was 
necessary to go more earnestly to work. Large fowl, 
says Valieri, require good feeding : people who 
have gold in abundance are not to be had at a 
cheap rate §. 

In this way there arose, within the walls of the 
harem, an interest opposed to the vizier, and by 
which he was himself ruled, and placed, and dis- 
placed ; not a general interest of the empire, nor a 
personal one of the sultan's, but an interest of 
women and of eunuchs, who now assumed the lead 
of this warlike state ||. 

The harem possessed yet another influence. As 
the sultans began to give not only their sisters and 
their daughters, but also their slaves in marriage 
to the great, it followed that these women carried 
the manners of the serai into private houses 
What a wide departure was now made from the 

* Ibid passim. That this was generally known appears 
from the Ragionamento del re Filippo al suo figlio, MS. 
which ascribes to Amurath a " seguir contrario al deliberato." 

t Valieri: " Lascio in dubio veramente qual sia il re." 

J Ibid. " Mi sono ingegnato d'insinuarmi con la regina: 
con alcune gentilezze, che li riuscivano care, sopra ogni altra 
cosa, d'odori et d'altre acque di suo gusto, l'ho resa inclinata 
alia casa: onde ben spesso faceva ofTerirmi 1' opera sua." 

§ Ibid. " Ma ogni spesa con questi e benissimo impie- 
gata." 

|| On this turn of the viziership see also Businello, His- 
torical notices of the Ottoman monarchy, section xi. 

IT Relat. di 1594. "Manda alcune delle sue schiave — 
pregato anco della Cagianandona, fuori, maritandole a suoi 
schiavi piu favoriti. E di qui ha presa forza la corruttela de 

costumi turcheschi Non piu sedono in terra ma in sedie 

di velluto e d'oro d'infinita spesa ; ne si contentano d'una 
sola et semplice vivanda, come si usava a tempo di Solimano, 
ma sono introdutti li cuochi eccellentissimi, li pasticci, le 
torte, li mangiari composti." 



MILITARY FORCES. 



old simplicity of the camp from which the nation 
had set out. They began to cover their seats with 
cloth of gold ; they slept in summer on the finest 
silk, and in winter wrapped in costly furs. A pah' 
of shoes belonging to a Turkish lady of rank seemed 
worth more than the whole dress of an European 
princess. In lieu of the simple fare of Soliman's 
time they outdid all the delicacies of Italy. 

Now if this had an injurious influence from the 
mere fact that even the humbler classes gradually 
became used to live in this way, it was a still worse 
result that the great were compelled by their ex- 
penses, and prompted by the sultan's example, to 
do or suffer every thing for gold. If ever the 
rearing up of slaves to high places in the sultan's 
household had been attended with a good effect, 
this was now utterly destroyed. Justice was venal; 
every office had its price. But as every thing was 
liable to be lost again at any moment, the conse- 
quence was everywhere tyranny, extortion, desola- 
tion, and despair. Constantinople indeed increased; 
but it was because men thought themselves some- 
what more secure there than under the grasp of 
the pachas and their feudatories, or because more 
was to be earned by a town trade than by agricul- 
ture. The empire declined whilst its capital in- 
creased *. 

Military Forces. 

If the conclusion must be admitted, that the cor- 
ruption of the sultans and that of the system of go- 
vernment which have hitherto formed the subject 
of our inquiries, were related to each other as cause 
and effect, and were both to be traced to one origin; 
there were other alterations which arose indepen- 
dently of the former, and only co-operated with them 
to one result. 

Important changes took place in the warlike 
organization itself as well as in its head; and, first, 
in that institution which was the core and the 
sinews of all the others, the institution of the ja- 
nissaries. 

It is very well known how important the janis- 
saries were in the beginning ; it is no less known 
what they came to be at last ; both facts are striking- 
ly obvious. It is less clear, but certainly not less 
deserving to be known, how this decay took place. 

When we put together the scattered notices in our 
Relationi, we discern some stages of this transition. 

In the first place let us recollect that the janis- 
saries were originally prohibited from marrying, 
and even to a late period they adhered to the cus- 
tom of not suffering any woman near their bar- 
racks. On no account, says Spandugino, were 
they to take wives f. Despotism, like the hierarchy, 
required people wholly devoted to itself, separated 
by no care for wife or child, by no domestic hearth, 
from the only interests they should know, the in- 
terests of their lord. But now marriage was allowed 
the janissaries, and that undoubtedly as early as in 
Soliman's reign; at first indeed only to such of 
them as were less fit for actual service, or who were 

* Relat. di 1594: "Chi non puo fuggire in altro paese, si 
salva in Constantinopoli. Onde si inganna chi da questo 
argomenta la grandezza del imperio, poiche imitando il corpo 
humano si veggono le vene correre per tutte le parti del 
corpo et non allargarsi ne ramificare vicino al cuore." 

t Trattato di Theodoro Spandugino de costumi de Turchi, 
printed in Sansovino's collection, p. 113. "I detti Geniz- 
zeri in alcun modo non possono prender moglie." 



stationed on the frontiers, but gradually to all with- 
out exception *. This change alone must have pro- 
duced no little mutation in the habits and way of 
thinking of the soldiery. 

But another change immediately came forth 
from the first, and directly threatened the very vita- 
lity of the institution. The question was, what was 
to be done with the children of the janissaries ? The 
fathers demanded that their sons should be receiv- 
ed into their body. We learn from the Relatione 
of Giovanfrancesco Morosini, and as far as my in- 
vestigation has gone, from it alone, that they ob- 
tained this favour on the accession of Selim II. to 
the throne. It is very well known that the grand 
vizier Mehemet thought it expedient to keep secret 
the death of Soliman before Sighet. It was not till 
the army had begun its march homewards after 
the conquest of that place, and had already reached 
Belgrade, not till Selim, who had set out from 
Asia upon the first secret intelligence sent him by 
Mehemet, had arrived at the same point, that 
the death of the late sultan and the accession of 
the new were proclaimed at one and the same mo- 
ment f. It now happened, as Morosini relates, 
that Mehemet, who was never very lavish of the 
imperial treasure, did not bestow upon the janissa- 
ries the present usual on the accession of a sultan, 
particularly as they had dispersed on the march 
home. Incensed at this they betook themselves 
to their quarters, with muttered threats that they 
would let it be seen in Constantinople who and 
what, they were. They arrived before the sultan; 
they escorted him into the capital; but when the 
line of march was arrived before their odalar, their 
quarters, they halted, stepped forth, and declared 
that they would not suffer the sultan to enter the 
serai unless he satisfied their demands. Now their 
demands were not only to the effect that they should 
be granted the accustomed gratuities, and that their 
pay should be raised, but what is of most import- 
ance to our present consideration, that their sons, 
for whom the state had already condescended to 
make provision, should be admitted into the janis- 
sary corps as soon as they were grown up %, In vain 
the viziers dismounted from their horses to still the 
mutiny with fair words; in vain the aga of the janis- 
saries went among them, with his head enveloped in 
the handkerchief used for strangling, and implored 
them not to put this insult on the sultan ; the 

* Soranzo, 1581 : " Si maritano come piii lor piace ; il che 
gia non li era permesso se non ad alcuno posto nelie fron- 
tiere overo consumato delle guerre, ma tutto con licenza et 
gratia dell' Aga." That this was the case under Soliman, is 
stated in Libri tre delle cose de Turchi, Venice 1539, p. 18. 

t Here likewise Morosini is exclusively our informant. 
"Alia qual gionta (the vizier's) ritrovandosi Sultan Selim 
accampato fuori della citta; riceve il corpo, al quale subito 
fatto secondo il costume turchesco la sua oratione, ipsofacto 
lo consegno ad Acmad Bassa Visir che lo dovesse condurre 
in Constantinopoli et sepelirlo nel giardino della sua mos- 
chea; appresso postosi Sultan Selim a sedere realmente, li 
fu bacciato la mano." 

I Morosini: " Le dimande di Giannizzeri erano queste, 
che essendo stati dati loro solamente 2000 aspri di presente 
per uno et tagliati in parte il modo del accrescimento del 
loro soldo, fossegli accresciuto il presente sino alia somma di 
3000 aspri, come avea fatto Sultan Solimano, et che il 
accrescimento del soldo loro fosse nel medesimo modo, — che 
i loro figliuoli subito nato dovessero secondo il solito essere 
descritti al pane et dopo cresciuti in eta dovessero medesima- 
mente essere fatti Giannizzeri." 

c 2 



20 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



viziers were forced to give way, the aga to with- 
draw. They did not suffer the sultan to enter the 
serai till in his name, and in his presence, the aga 
had promised all they demanded; they did not 
throw open the gates till Selim once more made 
them the same promise with his own lips, and raised 
his hands above his head in testimony of his vow. 
They then opened the gates, fell into rank, and 
saluted their sovereign with a full volley from their 
arquebuses. The next divan ratified what had 
been thus granted them. 

Now if it was constitutional with this body-guard 
to be made up of young people, who had lost all 
knowledge of their parental home, this principle 
was now decidedly violated, and that not exception- 
ally, but by distinct enactment. Ere long the sons 
of the janissaries were seen in the ranks of that 
corps. It was impossible that they should have 
undergone the full rigour of discipline that had 
once been enforced. 

It may readily be conceived that this facilitated 
the passage to a third innovation. When that 
Persian war in which Amurath embarked, because 
it seemed the most arduous of all Ottoman enter- 
prises, proved in reality to be very difficult, con- 
sumed whole armies and afforded no conquests .; 
when it made great havoc in the ranks of the ja- 
nissaries, and it was urgently necessary to recruit 
these in every way, it was then not enough that 
their sons should be admitted among them, admis- 
sion was likewise granted to other native Turks, 
and to Mussulmen of all nations, men unpractised, 
undisciplined, and incapable of all discipline *. This 
was carried to such a pitch as to produce an inter- 
nal division in the body. How should the veterans, 
who had borne a part in Soliman's wars, have 
deemed this promiscuous rabble worthy comrades 
in arms ? There was often reason to fear that they 
would come to mutual hostilities. 

The door was thus flung open widely to every 
abuse. The metamorphosis made rapid way. 
Under Soliman the janissaries took themselves 
wives ; under Selim II. they had their sons en- 
rolled among them; under Amurath III. they were 
forced to admit among them native Turks, of 
totally different descent, who had not gone through 
their training; under Ahmed this warlike body was 
already brought to such a condition, that the pri- 
vates when stationed through the country or on the 
frontiers began to ply to trades, to engage in com- 
merce, and, satisfied with the advantage of their 
name, to think little of war and arms *f*. 

How badly now did they stand to their arms ! A 
Frank could not refrain from laughing to see them 

•Relatione di 1594: " Gia scelti homini fatti d'ogni 
natione — non hanno in loro altro che crudelta, insolenza et 
disobedienza verso li capi loro." Discorso dello stato del 
Turco, in the Tesoro politico i, 99. "Sono stati anco as- 
critti al luogo dei Giannizzeri nati Turehi contra l'ordine 
invecchiato di quella porta, che non ha mai usata, se non per 
estraordinario favore, di far Gianizzero nessun altro se non 
rinegato." 

t Valieri: "Resta assai alterata questa militia et nella 
gente et nella disciplina; perche molti Turchi nativi sono 
ascritti in luogo d'altri, et la maggiore parte e sparsa nel 
paese, che fattasi con la nostra voce casalini attendono alia 
mercantiaet ad ogni commercio senza curarsi d'altro, bastan- 
doli il commodo che apporta il nome de Giannizzeri, che e 
grande." Perhaps the gradations of the change will some- 
time or other be more accurately intelligible from more cir- 
cumstantial accounts. I 



shoot. They clutched the stock of their piece 
tightly in their left hand, while with the right they 
applied the match; and so childish was then' fear 
of the explosion that they hurriedly turned away 
their heads *. How far did they now fall short of 
their old invincible renown ? It passed soon into a 
proverb, The janissary has surely a good eye and 
good legs, the former to see if the cavalry waver, 
and the latter to run away with all speed there- 
upon. 

If the janissaries were no longer capable of de- 
fending the empire as before, they now turned 
against the sultan the strength and the arms they 
had hitherto employed against his foes. Even in 
former times the rigour of their discipline had not 
always sufficed to keep them under subjection; that 
rigour was now relaxed f, but their old refractori- 
ness remained, along with their old rights and pre- 
tensions. When all those personal qualities of 
the several members are lost which may at some 
time have conferred privileges on any society or 
body corporate, still the spirit of the body does not 
depart, but clings to its prerogatives with aug- 
menting pertinacity. The insolence of these forces 
was insufferable. They compelled sultan Amurath 
to deliver up to them deftardars and pachas to be 
strangled. They slew a pacha of Cyprus, and 
Amurath sent them another. Fearing that the 
new man, however complaisant he affected to be, 
would punish them for what they had done to his 
predecessor, they promised him obedience at first, 
and lulled him into security ; then, when they saw 
their opportunity, they surrounded him and his 
staff, and killed them all J. Thus were the slaves 
become tyrants. 

One question now remains, when did the prac- 
tice cease of pressing Christian boys into the ser- 
vice of the palace ? It may be supposed that this 
was gradually abandoned from the time native 
Turks began to be employed. Marsigli, who made 
his observations in 1680, assures us, that the cus- 
tom had long fallen into desuetude §. Valieri, on 
the other hand, whose Relatione belongs to the 
year 1618, describes it as in full operation. We 
must conclude therefore that it was left off between 
1630 and 1650. I find no trace of it in the Rela- 
tione of 1637- This was unquestionably the great- 
est good fortune that befel the Greeks. How could 
they have entertained a thought of rising, nay of 
at all sustaining themselves as a body, had the 
practice of regularly carrying off the flower of 
their youth into slavery been persisted in ? It is 
not till after this usage had ceased, not till the 
seventeenth century, that we first meet with a 

* Relat. di 1637: "Un tenero ngliuolino si mostrerebbe 
piu ardito." 

t Relat. di 1594 : "La militia e relassata da quella prima 
et ottima sua disciplina ; perche la falange de Giannazzeri, 
da cui valore sono sempre dependuti tutti li acquisti di 
questo imperio, apena retiene la prima imagine ; non essendo 
piu educati con quella esatta disciplina, passando per quei 
cimenti che solevano li vecchi. . . Peril che non e maraviglia 
che siano pieni li avisi di tante scelerita da loro commessi 
sino in Constantinopoli su gli occhi del signore et sotto il 
medesimo Sinan Bassa." 

X Leunclavii Supplementum Annalium Turcicorum, p. 
93. 

§ Marsigli, dello stato militare, i. c. 6, p. 27. " Ad instanza 
de timarli, de siameti, de beg et beglerbeg e molto tempo 
che fu levato quel crudel tributo che queste nationi Chris - 
tiane doveano dare con un certo numero di figli." 



FRONTIERS. 



21 



klepht, celebrated in the national songs, Christos 
Milionis *. 

It is self-evident that these great changes, deci- 
sively influencing the whole constitutional eco- 
nomy of the empire, must have extended to the 
other slaves destined to the sultan's service. As 
early as the times of Selim II. the custom ceased 
of entrusting the higher offices of state exclusively 
to the Christian-born slaves brought up in the 
serai. Barbaro says, the sons of Turks are now 
admitted to these offices by a pernicious stretch 
of partiality ; an irregularity disapproved of by 
many, and which in his opinion was sure to be 
pernicious to the empire f. And in fact it was not 
long before a dearth of able men was thought to 
be evident. Only as the sultan still continued to 
keep the serai full of slaves, come whencesoever 
they might, as with the natural leaning of every 
despot he went on bestowing the highest stations 
on favourite slaves, the revolution could not be so 
complete in this case as in the others. 

It is easy too to see that the janissaries would 
necessarily communicate their own corruption to 
the sipahi at the Porte. The Persian war had a two- 
fold mischievous effect on the sipahi, since it not 
only cost them men, but also completely ruined 
that excellent breed of horses they had hitherto 
employed, and which had contributed not a little 
to their renown. Among the sipahi too were ad- 
mitted native Turks and people of all sorts J ; they 
too were always prompt to mutiny. In the year 
1589 they compelled Sultan Amurath to reinstate 
Sinan, who had recently been dismissed, in the 
rank of grand vizier §. 

The condition of the timars was not very inti- 
mately connected with what we have been consi- 
dering ; but they too could not escape participa- 
tion in the general corruption. I find no account, 
either in print or in manuscript, of the manner in 
which they underwent change. It is fortunate 
therefore that there exist two unquestionably ge- 
nuine reports by Turks, which throw some light 
on the subject. Aini, a feudal officer under Sultan 
Ahmed, remarks that in old times it had been 
almost impossible for any other than the son of a 
sipahi to obtain a timar ; but subsequently this 
regulation had fallen into neglect, and even the 
lowest persons made pretensions to be timarli||. 
The question is how and when did this occur ? If 
I am not mistaken this may be discovered from a 
decree of Soliman He is given to understand, 
he says in that document, that the sons of the 
raajas who had obtained fiefs, were excluded from 
the timars under the pretence that they were fo- 
reigners, that they were plundered of their berat, 
that is their patents, and that contrivances were 
used to obtain firmans to eject them. He strongly 
censures this. " How should the inhabitants of my 
territories and states," he says, " be foreigners with 
respect to each other ? Sipahi and raajas are alike 

* TpayovSia 'Pw/jlcliku, p. 2. 

t "Ben e vero che a questi tempi con corruttela et scan- 
dalo si va introducendo con favor figliuoli de Turchi." 

X Relat. di 1594: "Cosi hanno perduti non pure quei 
vigorosi cavalli ma anco le razze ; et perd sendo fatti li 
spahi d'ogni sorte d'huomini . - . teme tanto piu il Signore che 
questa gente povera et avida desideri mutatione di stato." 

§ Sagredo, Memorie de Monarchi Ottomani, 683. 

|| Kanunname of Aini, Hammer, Staatsverf. der Osm. i. 372. 

f Kanunname to the beglerbeg Mustafa, Hammer i, 3. 50. 



my servants, and should dwell quietly beneath the 
bounteous shadow of my favour." From this it is to 
be inferred, that the inferior classes had obtained 
under Soliman, and with his approval, those advan- 
tages of which Aini complains. He complains be- 
cause this innovation undoubtedly gave occasion to a 
multitude of irregularities. It is not well to alter or 
meddle too much with institutions on the steady sub- 
sistence of which rests the stability of a state. The 
consequence of these innovations was, that the sand- 
shaks and pachas, indebted for their own promo- 
tion to the sultan's inclination to favour his slaves, 
imitated the example, and seized the opportunity 
to bestow fiefs on their own slaves, often worthless 
fellows. Having once succeeded in this they went 
further. They had already begun to apply the 
timars more to their own service than to that of 
the state ; they now made them wholly subservient 
to their own profit, without maintaining the troops 
required by law. It was soon noticed in the serai 
how profitable this was to them ; but those who 
might have stopped the abuse, instead of doing so 
indulged in it themselves. What had hitherto been 
done only by the governors of provinces, was 
now practised, by the central authorities. They 
began to dispose of the timars as gratuities, with- 
out regard to their military destination *. Then 
followed gradually what Aini complains of, that 
for the space of twenty or thirty years no muster 
was held, that a sandshak, instead of a hundred 
sipahi scarcely furnished fifteen, and that frequent- 
ly not a tenth part of those registered in the books 
were actually forthcoming +. A chief cause of 
Nasuf's fall was that he attempted to stem this 
disorder. He employed for a while twenty scribes 
daily to aid him in his inquiries and in preparing new 
books, so that he might insist on the maintenance 
of the due number of sipahi J. But great loads, 
says Valieri, are not easily moved; he who attempts 
to divert rivers from their course exposes himself 
to danger. Nasuf was unable to abolish the abuse; 
the attempt proved his ruin. 

Thus we see the three foremost soldieries of this 
state fall simultaneously into manifest decay. They 
show plainly enough in themselves how this happen- 
ed. Still the corruption of the other institutions had 
also assuredly an important influence upon them. 
A state is so intimately interwoven as a whole, that 
the fatal evil which has seized on one part over- 
spreads the rest. The thing occurs, without our 
being able to say precisely how it occurs. 

Frontiers. 

It is certain that under Soliman the Ottoman 
empire, as it surpassed all others in intrinsic 
strength, so likewise was it more threatening than 
any other power to the rest of the world. 

* Valieri: "II numero e impossibile che si sappia; perche 
molti timari si sono perduti per la dishabitatione del paese ; 
molti sono possessi dalle fatture del serraglio, avuti in 
assegnamente di propria entrada : et molti viene detto esser 
tenuti anco dalli medesimi Visiri et Grandi della porta et 
del serraglio e de suoi ministri che con favore nelle vacanze 
facilmente se ne impadroniscano." 

t Aini's Kanunname, Hammer i, 372. 

I Valieri: " Volse Nasuf, gia primo Visir, venir indietro 
di questo negotio et deputo piu di 20 scrivani per caverne 
l'intiero et fame un nuovo catasto, per ritrovare il numero 

et reintegrarlo Ma la moltitudine interessata non am- 

mette ne vuole regola, ma ben spesso cambio la no vita con 
la testa dell'autore." 



22 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



It nevertheless appears from our investigations, 
that under this very same Soliman the internal 
strength of this empire became afflicted with grave 
maladies. Under him the influence of women in 
the harem first gained the ascendancy ; under him 
those edicts were issued that gave the chief occa- 
sion to the change in the disposition of the timars ; 
under him the janissaries began to have wives ; 
through him it came to pass that the least worthy 
of his sons ascended the throne. Nor was this all. 
If a state has been founded on conquest, if it has 
hitherto known no pause to its progressive con- 
quests, can any one doubt that the shock to it will 
be severe when the progress is stayed, and con- 
quest ceases % Under Soliman, warlike and vic- 
torious as he was, the empire yet began to have 
boundaries. In the east he encountered in Per- 
sia a weak people indeed, that intrinsically was 
by no means able to cope with him, but still a 
people who venerated their shah as a god, and even 
made vows to his name in their sicknesses *, that 
left their territory widely exposed to the foe, but not 
till they had first laid it waste, so that the assailants 
could never reach the fugitive defenders, and had 
enough to do to avoid being themselves assailed on 
their retreat. Christendom was Soliman's other 
foe, and it must be owned it was weakened by in- 
ternal dissensions. Now if the establishment of 
the Austro-Spanish power was in any point of view 
a fortunate thing for Christendom, it was so inas- 
much as it was fitted by circumstances, and had 
inherent strength enough, to resist the Turks at once 
in Africa, Italy, and Hungary. In this way it has 
earned the gratitude of all Christian nations. It 
crossed and resisted both the directions taken by 
the Turkish power in its outspread westward, the 
continental and the maritime. What tedious sieges 
were required to capture single small towns in 
Austrian Hungary ! What vast efforts were made 
to no purpose before Malta ! Those two nations, 
that had once set bounds to the broad empire of 
the Romans, the German, namely, and the Persian, 
should these be subjugated by the Turks, by whom 
they were now both assailed ? 

Such by all means were the hopes of the Turks 
and the fears of the rest of the world. If decay 
was present, it was little more than an alteration 
in the moral impulses still lurking within, and not 
to be at once discerned either by friend or foe. 

When Selim II. came to the throne, two enter- 
prises presented themselves to him, both in that 
maritime direction towards the west which Maho- 
met II. had opened. The one was against Spain f, 
the prime foe of the Muhamedan name ; an enter- 

* Relatione di Mr- Vincenzo delli Alessandri delle cose da 
lui osservate nello regno di Persia, MS. Berol. : " Si tiene 
felice quella casa ehe puo havere qualche drappo o scarpe di 
esso Re, overo dell' acqua dove egli si ha lavato le mani, 
usandola contra la febbre. Non pur i popoli, ma i figliuoJi e 
Sultani parendoli, di non poter ritrovare epiteti convenient! 
a tanta grandezza, gli dieono : Tu sei la fede nostra et in te 
crediamo: cosi si osserva nelle citta vicine fino a questo 
termino di riverenza, ma nelle ville e luoghi piu. lontani 
molti tengono che egli, oltre l'havere lo spirito della profetia, 
riusciti li morti et faccia altri simili miracoli." 

t Mehemet was in favour of this enterprsie. Relatione 
dello stato- "Concetto gia fu di Mehemet di assaltare la 

Spagna per gettare sopra di lei li Mori." Relatione di 

Barbaro delli negotii trattati da lui con Turchi per lo spatio 
di sei anni, MS. " Mehemet proponendo con buone ragioni 
il soccorrere i Mori in Spagna ribellati dal re catholico, 



prise glorious for its boldness even should it fail, 
but should it prosper, one that promised the grand- 
est results. That kingdom was just then thrown 
into serious peril by the insurrection of the Moors, 
whose numbers were computed at 85,000 families. 
They even sent repeatedly to Constantinople, and 
most urgently besought the aid of their brethren in 
faith. The other enterprise was against Venice 
and Cyprus. The Venetians had been peaceful, com- 
pliant, almost submissive, always with presents in 
their hands for the sultan and his vizier. If the 
capudan when cruising abstained from piracy in 
their waters, they were never slack in remember- 
ing it to him. They were of all foreigners the 
most liberal to the dragomans, as the latter re- 
marked in their books *. Cyprus was already half 
subdued, and as an Egyptian fief yielded a tribute 
of 8000 ducats. Here there were no oppressed 
Muhamedans, nor any great glory to be acquired. 
On the contrary, it would be necessary to break a 
peace just sworn. 

Sultan Selim did not ponder what were the man- 
liest, the grandest enterprises, and the most useful 
to his fellow believers ; he only considered what 
might be the easiest, the surest, and the nearest 
conquest. A landing could hardly be prevented in 
Cyprus. If it came then to sieges, as it would be 
sure to do, how should any resistance be made by 
the capital Nikosia % the reason for making which 
town the capital was merely that it lay between 
mountains that tempered the heat of the climate. 
The fall of Nikosia would necessarily infer that 
of the whole island. Some even went the length 
of supposing that Venice would never engage in 
earnest war for the defence of Cyprus *f* ; it had 
too urgent need of Turkish goods for its commerce, 
and of Turkish corn for its sustenance. In spite 
of the repeated and strenuous opposition of Mehe- 
met, and often as the mufti called attention to the 
distresses of the unfortunate Moors, distresses it 
was the sultan's indefeasible duty to relieve, still 
Selim's unwarriorlike ambition decided for the 
attack on Cyprus ; his army embarked, landed, 
conquered the capital, and took the island. 

And now, strange to say, the easier undertaking 
proved to be attended with more dangerous conse- 
quences than could ever have ensued from the 
more difficult one. 

Had Spain been attacked, Venice would never 
have resolved on lending that country her strenu- 
ous aid ; the neighbourhood of the Turks on all 
her frontiers would have been too alarming to 
allow of this %. But when Venice was attacked, 

dimostrando quanto maggior gloria e profitto dovesse appor- 
tarli quella impresa." 

* Navagero, Relatione: "Ibraimbei (Dragomano) m'ha 
detto molte volte, haver veduto il libro di Sanusbei, ove 
erano scritti li doni che li facevano tutti li principi et altri 
che negotiavano a questa porta, e ritrovato che niun altro 
li dava tanto ne cosi spesso come la Signoria di Venetia, al 
che molte volte ho riposto che cosi la Signoria vuole trattare 
li suoi buoni amici," 

+ Barbaro delli negotii trattati r " Niun altra causa haveva 
mosso piu 1'animo del Signore al tentare l'impresa di Cipro 
che il persuadersi d'ottenere la cession di quel regno senza 
contrasto d'armi ; si come i maggiori della Porta si lascia- 
vano chiaramente intendere, mossi si per la poca estimatione 
che tacevano delle forze di questa republica come anco per 
il timido modo col quale s'era seco proceduto." 

1 This is hinted at in Avvertimenti di Carlo V. al re il 
Filippo II. " Che sia il Turco per rompere prima con i 



FRONTIERS. 



23 



since it was the interest of Philip II. to keep the 
war, which would otherwise have threatened him 
at home, in remote waters, the consequence was, a 
confederation of the two maritime powers. It was 
joined by the pope ; three fleets stood together to 
sea to meet the Turks. 

The naval like the military force of the Turks 
was constituted with a view to continuous conquest. 
The timars in the islands, the holders of which served 
in the fleet, were similar to those on the mainland. 
The Turks ruled the Mediterranean in war and 
piracy ever since that day in the year 1538, when 
Chaireddin Barbarossa attacked with wonderful 
daring, and vanquished the far superior fleet of the 
Christians at Prevesa. They believed that the 
Christians would never venture again to stand before 
them in open fight. This superiority endured till 
the year 1571. The individual must often stand 
for the whole ; the vicissitudes in human events 
are often determined by the talent and the will of 
one distinguished man. The Turks were now con- 
fronted by a youth who for daring, energy, fortune, 
and grand conceptions might well be compared 
with Chaireddin Barbarossa ; this was Don John 
of Austria. The Christians were victorious under 
his command ; the Turks had no equal to oppose 
to him ; the day of Lepanto broke down the Otto- 
man supremacy. 

But it must not be supposed that the maritime 
power of the Turks was nothing before Chaireddin's 
time, and that it was instantaneously reduced again 
to nothing by Don John. Growth and decay are 
the slow work of time ; those two remarkable days 
only mark two great crises. 

The Turks lost all their old confidence after the 
battle of Lepanto *. They were soon conscious of 
the vices in their naval system. The grand defect 
was, that they would only condescend to bear arms, 
leaving all the rest to slaves f. Slaves were com- 
pelled to build their ships, and these men, as it 
was not their own affair, carelessly employed un- 
seasoned wood : the consequence was, that the 
vessels, however handsomely they might be con- 
structed in other respects, were prone to leak, 
and that usually out of several hundred galleys, 
hardly fifty were to be found seaworthy. They 
employed slaves linked in a chain to navigate their 
vessels. But as they nevertheless treated their 
crews as slaves, that is to say not as men, the 

Venetiani die con voi, non e verisimile, perche potrebbe 
stimare che in tal caso haverebbe insieme ancora voi ; ove 
rompendo primo con voi, pud sperare che i Venetiani si 
sieno almeno stare di mezzo, si per la loro desistenza gia 
tant' anni dall' armi, si ancora per haverli esso fitte l'unghie 
adosso et quasi il freno in bocca posto per rispetta dell' isola 
di Candia et di Cipri." 

* Barbara: "EMevata non solo a Turchi quella superba 
impressione che Christiani non ardirebbono affrontarli, ma 
in contrario sono al presente gli animi loro talmente oppressi 
da timore che non ardiscono affrontarsi con gli nostri, con- 
fessando essi medesimi che le loro gallere sono intutte parte 
inferiori alia bonta delle nostre, cosi di gente piu. atta al com- 
battere, come dell' artiglieria et di tutte altre cose pertinenti 
alia navigatione ; et veramente e cosi." 

f Floriani: "I Turchi non hanno applicato il pensiero a 
nessun esercitio e massimamente a quello delle cose mari- 
time." Barbaro : " Nelle cose maritime non hanno li Turchi 
vocabolo della lingua loro, ma tutti sono greci o franchi." 
[The Turks have not a single naval term proper to their own 
language, but all borrowed from those of the Greeks or the 
Franks.] 



majority of them perished. Barbaro saw the fleet 
return five times, and each time completely un- 
manned. Under these circumstances, if ever they 
came to an engagement, the captains had no longer 
the prospect of making prizes before them, but 
might foresee the loss of their slaves to the enemy, 
if they were faithful, or their insurrection if they 
were not so. There was nothing they more dreaded 
than coming to close quarters with the Christians 
in the open sea. 

The bad condition of the fleet, the worthlessness 
of the working crews, and that spiritless temper of 
the armed men, which first made glaringly obvious 
all those other defects that had before been covered 
by courage and good fortune, lastly, the enormous 
costs of equipment, for a long while made Selim's 
successors averse to enterprises of magnitude by 
sea, and necessarily produced a pause in this branch 
of the Turkish conquests. 

But as yet there was no cessation to their conti- 
nental efforts. The lust of dominion over the 
world was too deeply rooted in the minds of these 
sultans. Though himself so unmanly, and under 
such unmanly guidance, Amurath nevertheless 
carried on continual wars for conquest, and this 
freely and spontaneously, to the no small diminu- 
tion of the treasures he amassed with such eager- 
ness *. He would never grant a peace except 
upon the most unequal conditions. That love of 
conquest, which covets only the acquisition of terri- 
tory, whether it be that it takes delight in the 
active occupations of war, or that it may be in- 
dulged without the necessity of leaving home, is 
equally insatiable as voluptuous lust or the greed of 
gold ; it seems to depend upon the self-same prin- 
ciple in the mental constitution as these two passions. 

Be this as it may, Amurath embarked in two 
wars, the Persian and the Hungarian, that even- 
tually exhausted the best energies of the empire. 
The two presented him with totally distinct diffi- 
culties. In Persia he had to do with a country 
destitute indeed of castles and towns, but likewise 
without villages or inhabitants for a space of six 
or seven days' journey f. His troops no doubt 
marched unresisted through wide tracts of this 
purposely devastated frontier land ; they establish- 
ed themselves beyond it in Shirvan, built vessels in 
Temicarpi, and navigated the Caspian, and even 
founded a fortress in Tauris, above the lofty moun- 
tain range that divides Iran from Mesopotamia. 
Yet these were no conquests to afford means of 
filling treasuries and building mosques. Even the 
country which the conquerors held with some 
degree of security was not capable of being divided 
out into timars. For as the remnants of the inha- 
bitants either fled to the mountains, where they 
defied control, or into the interior of Iran, where 
there was no getting at them; there remained no 
subjects either to maintain the timarli and his 

* Relat. di 1594. " Ha bisognato il paese tenere in freno 

con forti, che costano ad esso Amurath un tesoro Del 

quale rispetto si valsero assai gli emuli di Mustafa, mos- 
trando che egli con poco guidicio haveva divisato di pigliar 
la porta della Persia, poiche si e scoperto che questo e un 
tailo et una ruina perpetua all' erario del Signore." 

f " Le fortezze del Re di Persia sono al presente l'haver 
fatto desertare i paesi verso i confini del Turco per ogni 
parte in sei o sette giornate di cammino, et quelli castelli 
che vi erano li ha fatto ruinare per assicurarsi tanto piu." 
Vincenzo degli Alessandri, Relatione di Persia. 



24 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



horse, or to pay the capitation tax. Amurath had 
to make up his mind to build castles, and to pay 
the garrisons out of his privy purse *. Only the 
longing to possess every country that had ever 
borne the hoof-prints of Ottoman horses, only the 
illusive belief that he was destined to be lord of the 
east and of the west, could ever have induced him 
to prosecute wars in which his people had to con- 
tend more with hunger and the inclemency of the 
elements than with the sword of the foeman; and in 
which his generals had to strive no less against the 
mutiny of their own men than against the resistance 
of the enemy. Ere long too the dissensions of the 
Persian princes, which had hitherto been subser- 
vient to the success of the Turks, came to an end, 
and the throne of Persia was ascended by Shah 
Abbas, a very different man from these descend- 
ants of Othman, affable and estimable, energetic, 
brave in the field, and victorious +; a sovereign 
who, after successful wars in Khorasan, allying him- 
self with those Georgians who boasted that every 
man of them was a match single handed for five 
Turks, soon won back the lost frontiers. They 
used to say in the sixteenth century, that these fron- 
tiers were for the Turks what Flanders was for Spain. 

But if the sultan had some partial success in 
Persia, at least in the beginning, this was not the 
case in Hungary. The dreams of his commanders 
of carrying the dominion of the Porte into Ger- 
many and Italy, or at the least of conquering Bo- 
hemia X, were crossed by difficulties, different in 
kind from those encountered in Persia, but no less 
formidable. These were the military dispositions 
on the frontiers, important fortresses, and, in the 
beginning at least, the decisive hostility of Transyl- 
vania, and the vacillating temper of Wallachia §. 
This is not the place to go into the history of this 
war. It is clear that the Ottoman conquests had 
met with that check, which it was foreseen even 
in Soliman's time they would one day sustain. 
The Persians and the Germans remained unvan- 
quished. Thus then the main lines of march pur- 
sued by the Ottoman victories being three, one by 
sea in the Mediterranean, and two by land, in the 
east and in the north-west, we see that in all three 
they halted, in the first under Selim, and in the 
last two under Amurath. 

* Relatione dello stato etc. di 1594, f. 495. "Li soldati 
turchi non vogliono accettar timari, poiche non hanno il 
modo di far lavorare i terreni, con i quali possano notrire i 
cavalli descritti per nuovi timarioti in augumento dell' eser- 
cito. Le gabelle delle paese acquistati non rendon alcun 
utile. Onde conviene ad Amurath pagare li presidii dal 
suo Casna." 

t Giacomo Fava, Lettera scritta in Spahan a di 20 Luglio, 
1599. Tesoro politico ii. 258. 

I Relat di 1594 : " Iattavano di voler passare 1' Austria et 
voler andare in Bohemia, nel qual regno havevano molte 
loro spie per torre in nota li fiumi, le fortezze et il sito del 
paese, sperando per quella loro alterezza turchesca di ac- 
quistar facilmente tutti quei paesi mettendo inanzi al Signore 
checon questi si farebbe ricchissimo il suo esercito." [They 
boasted that they would overrun Austria and enter Bohemia, 
in which kingdom they had numerous spies reconnoitring 
the rivers, the fortresses, and the posture of the country, 
hoping, with their Turkish arrogance, that they would easily 
acquire all those territories, and suggesting to the grand 
signor how much these would enrich his army.] 

§ Laurentii Soranzi Ottomanus, in Conring's collection, is 
classical on this head. See also Anonymi Dissertatio de 
statu imperii Turcici cujusmodi sub Amuratho fuit, in the 
same collection, particularly p. 325. 



Posture of the empire under Amurath IV. 

Wholly altered was now the aspect of the Otto- 
man empire from that presented in former times. 
That inward energy was lost which had knit together 
the military monarch and his army and fitted them 
for continuous conquests. The helm of state was 
in the hands of favourites within the serai, of women 
and eunuchs. The sovereign's body guards, that had 
once given him victory and security, were now des- 
titute of their ancient valour and discipline. Neigh- 
bouring nations had no more reason to dread the 
Osmanlis than any other foes, and might sit down 
more at ease, relieved from their former incessant 
mortal combats for freedom or bondage. 

But the elements of this state, that before had 
worked together to such mighty achievements 
abroad, now turned their force against each other 
in intestine strife. 

It has been repeatedly asserted, that the old 
notion of the sultan's unlimited authority was erro- 
neous; that he was restricted now by the hierarchy 
of the ulemas, and now by the power of. the sol- 
diery*. And in point of fact both these often 
gave their lord and chief no little trouble. 

But if it be considered that the sultan is first 
iman and khalif, of whom an article of faith de- 
clares that he is invested with absolute authority, 
that every one is subordinate to him, and that none 
must be recognized as co-ordinate with him f ; a 
second, that he needs neither be just, nor virtuous, 
nor in other respects free from blame J ; and finally, 
a third asserts that neither tyranny on his part nor 
other faults justify his subjects in deposing him § : 
if these things be considered, how were it possible 
to withstand him without rebellion, that is, without 
violation at once of his person and of the law % When 
Amurath IV. annulled a first principle of Muham- 
medanism, and allowed the use of wine, did the 
ulemas, who should have been the guardians of 
the holy law, resist him % The mufti, the head of 
the whole hierarchy, is after all but the deputy of 
the sultan, who appoints him and can depose him 
at pleasure ||. 

Had the soldiery then the right of resisting, either , 
by themselves or in concert with the ulemas ? Mu- 
radgea remarks that every revolution affecting the 
throne was still invariably regarded as illegitimate, 
as an offence against the consecrated majesty of 
the sovereign. 

The truth is, that people take in practice the 
right that is not conceded them by theory. The 
sovereign shall command without restriction ; the 
subject shall obey unconditionally: but it frequent- 
ly happens that the latter feels strong enough to 

* After Marsigli, particularly Toderini, Literature of the 
Turks, vol. i. p. 64. 

t Omer Nessefy's Catechism, with Sadeddin's Explana- 
tions, article 33. 

% Omer Nessefy, article 36. 

§ Ibid. art. 37, ap. Muradgea d'Ohsson, Tableau etc. i. p. 95. 

|| Muradgea : Du Scheik-ul Islam ou Mouphty, Tableau 
etc. ii. p. 259. Relatione di 1637 : " Di poi che il Gransi- 
gnore ha privato di vita il precessore di questo (Mufti) cono- 
scendo non voler la legge superiore alia sua volonta, deposta 
ogni autorevole forma di trattare, si serve di sommissione." 
[Since the grand signor put the predecessor of the present 
Mufti to death, the latter, seeing that the grand signor would 
own no law superior to his own will, has laid aside all pre- 
tensions to authoritative conduct, and is all submission.] 



FRONTIERS. 



23 



defy the sovereign's will, and the sovereign feels 
too weak to enforce his commands. It then comes 
to a struggle between the commander and the com- 
manded. 

After the death of Ahmed L it seemed as 
though the janissaries would completely subjugate 
the throne and seize the power of disposing of it as 
they pleased. Ahmed had been clement enough 
to spare his brother Mustafa. The latter was 
idiotic, so much so that his unconnected words 
were thought to embody oracles *. Notwithstand- 
ing this, the janissaries brought him forth and set 
him on the throne of the sultans, which till then 
had never passed but from father to son. It was 
their pleasure soon afterwards to depose him again, 
and to enthrone Othman, the son of Ahmed. No 
one ever felt more burthened by their intolerable 
fraternity than Othman. But when he showed 
symptoms of an inclination to withdraw from them 
(it is said he wished to transfer the seat of empire 
to Damascus or Cairo) they instantly rallied against 
him, and brought out his idiot uncle, dragging him 
up with a rope from the subterranean dungeon in 
which he lay as it were entombed. He thought 
they brought him forth to die ; but death was 
destined for his nephew, the throne for him. It 
may easily be imagined how he filled it. We are 
told, though I know not whether we are to under- 
stand the story in a proverbial or in a literal sense, 
that he flung money into the sea, saying that the 
fishes ought to have something to spend f. He 
made most serious inroads on the treasures col- 
lected by Selim and Ainurath. At last the janis- 
saries bethought them, and set him aside for Amu- 
rath IV., Ahmed's second son. 

But with him they became involved in deadly 
strife. Amurath on arriving at manhood possess- 
ed extraordinary bodily strength and agility. He 
was one of the best of riders, and sprang with 
ease from the back of one horse to another's; He 
flung the djereed with unfailing precision ; he 
drew the bow with such force that the arrow shot 
further than the ball from the hunter's gun, and 
he is said to have sent it through an iron plate 
four inches thick J. In other respects there was 
little to distinguish him. Whilst his mother (whom 
the author of our report found in her forty-fifth 

* Relatione di 1637 : " Artdando dalui per interpretatione 
di sogni et per altre risposte, come gli antichi facevano con 
oraculi, a quali mentre spropositatamente responde senza 
alcuno imaginabile senso, tengono vi si includino gran mis- 
terii nel oscurita di quel dire, venerandolo come profetico." 

t Ibid. " Nel corso di poehi mesi che per fortuna pote 
impugnare lo scettro, rese cosi povera la camera impe- 
riale cbe Murad suo nepote, quando all' imperio fu as- 
sunto, non baveva denaro per fare alle militie il solito 
donativo : et cio percbe Mustafa in grandissima copia a 
tutti ne prestava, dandone sino alii pesci del mare, dicendo 
cbe era bisogno cbe bavessero ancora loro da spendere." See 
also Majolino Bosaccioni, Vite d'alcune Imperatori Ottomani, 
in Sansovino's collection, edition of 1654, p. 345. 

I Ibid. " Gioca di zagaglia con non poca maestria, cosi 
fieri colpi menando che alcuna volta lo scherzo tramutato 
in tragedia ha piu della battaglia cbe del gioco o dello spas- 
so : non potendosi alcuno agguagliare alia robustezza del 
braccio suo, col quale piega si facilmente la durezza di 
ogni arco che sbarra la saetta piu lontana cbe fa la palla 
d'un archibuzzio di caccia ; haven do alcuna volta per esperi- 
mentar la sua forza, trapassato con frezza una lastra di ferro 
grossa quattro et phi dita." The accounts in Kantemir (Os- 
man. Geschichte, i. 3S0) are in a style of eastern hyperbole. 



year still beautiful and engaging, and besides this 
gnod-natured, virtuous, wise, and above all bounti- 
ful) continued to maintain the influence she had 
acquired under Ahmed, whilst the viziers were 
changed after every less prosperous campaign, and 
the soldiery fluctuated between mutiny and obedi- 
ence, he himself passed his time in his athletic ex- 
ercises, or surrounded with buffoons and musicians 
he indulged in wine, which he loved to a drunken 
excess. At last it was a great insurrection of the 
sipahi and the janissaries that gave his character 
its final bent. The insurgents murdered all who 
then possessed his confidence, the grand vizier, the 
aga of the janissaries, the deftardar, and even a 
boy, merely because he was liked by the sultan. 
He resolved to punish them*. Not being able to 
do this by open force, he had the ringleaders 
secretly assassinated one after the other, and their 
corpses were often seen at morning floating upon 
the sea. In this way he got rid of them assuredly, 
but the passion for murder was thus awakened 
within him. Perhaps it is not an erroneous sup- 
position, that after these private executions had 
given him the first taste for blood, he was confirmed 
in it by the desire for amassing treasure to which 
they afforded aliment. What could well have 
been more profitable to him than the execution of 
one of his grandees ? That of Rezep Pacha alone 
brought him in a million. This opinion cannot 
however be affirmed with certainty : the most per- 
nicious passions are those that take most rapid 
possession of the soul ; but true it is, at all events, 
that he was filled with a raging thirst for blood. 
This was evident even in the chase. His pleasure 
was not in the pursuit of the game ; this was 
driven together by many thousand men, and his 
whole delight was in slaughtering it when thus 
collected. It was computed in the year 1637, that 
he had executed 25,000 men within the last five 
years, and many of them with his own hand. He 
was now terrific to behold. His savage black eyes 
glared threateningly in a countenance half hidden 
by his dark brown hair and long beard ; but never 
was its aspect more perilous than when it showed 
the wrinkles between the eyebrows. His skill with 
the javelin and the bow was then sure to deal death 
to some one. He was served with trembling awe. 
His mutes were no longer to be distinguished from 
the other slaves of the serai, for all conversed by 
signs. While the plague was daily carrying off 
fifteen hundred victims in Constantinople, he had 
the largest cups brought from Pera, and drank half 
the night through, while the artillery was dis- 
charged by his orders *f*. 

* Ibid. "Comprobando la mia opinione l'essere lui vis- 
suto con assai placida et humana natura sin all652, bavendo 
promosso et eccitato alia strage l'arroganza et insolenza delie 
sue militie, quando con cosi poco rispetto et timore del Si- 
gnore loro et disprezze della legge propria volsero che nelle 
mani gli desse vivi per stratiarli a lor modo il Visir grande, 
l'aga de Gianizzeri, un suo favorito garzone, per il quale 
pianse nel darlo dirottamente, et il Gran Tesoriero del 
Divano o Camerlengo, che voglianiolo dire." — Siri, Mercurio, 
libro i. p. 173, displays on the whole but moderate acquaint- 
ance with the subject. 

t Ibid. " Non passan due mesi che ho inteso per lettere 
da quelle parti, che discorrendo un giorno (Amurath) con 
un suo favorito della peste che alhora andavo publicando i 
progressi suoi con ascendere a somma di mille et cinque- 
cento et seicento giorno, .... disse, che lasciasse che 
Dio nella stagione d'estate castigasse i cattivi, che poi nel 



26 



THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 



Violent remedies may be of good effect against 
deeply rooted evils. But in this man murder was 
no longer a means, but an indulgence. It is not 
thus that states are renovated. 

Nor did it prove so in his case. His excessive rigour 
undoubtedly tamed the refractory soldiery. Along 
with the use of coffee and tobacco he forbade 
them those meetings in which they sat whole days 
giving themselves up to those half-exciting, half- 
stupifying indulgences, and plotting together *. 

He compelled the sipahi to change their dress at 
his pleasure, and he cleared the streets of their 
noise and turbulence. He turned out the unser- 
viceable members of the janissary corps, and forced 
the efficient men to take the field in spite of their 
dispensations. He restored order in the timars 
that were dispensed from the serai. But with all 
this he could not bring back courage and victory 
to his troops. The sipahi missed the bounty of 
former sultans, and as their pay was not sufficient 
for them, they often abandoned pay and service 
together. The janissaries seemed now made to 
strike terror into the men of the west only by their 
looks and their shouts, not by their arms. In pre- 
sence of the enemy they displayed neither training 
nor courage. Their aga having marched on one 
occasion from Constantinople with the whole body 
of the janissaries, he reached Aleppo with only 
three thousand, the rest having all gone off by the 
way. The posts in the army which were formerly 
coveted with eagerness and sought for by bribery 
and every other means, were now as sedulously 
shunned. The earliest condition of the Ottoman 
army was now brought back, and the timarli once 
more appeared as its choicest portion. But even 
the best of them, those who were posted on the 
Hungarian frontiers, and kept in practice by the 
continual wars, were no great soldiers ; the Chris- 
tians congratulated themselves, that, luckily for the 
faithful, God had given the Turks but little ability +. 
Their battle array was compared to the aspect of a 
bull ; threatening, seemingly perilous, but to be 
overcome with judgment and address by a far in- 
ferior force. No great achievements could be 
looked for under this condition of the army, in 
which the less important household troops of the 
sultan, and those belonging to the pachas, now 
found opportunity to push themselves forward. 
Amurath made a campaign for the recovery of 

verno sariano stati i buoni sovvenuti da lui, et per guardarsi 
da quel pericolo che lui minacciava la malincolia, volendo 
scacciare da lui fece portare una gran copia di vini, et con 
piu grandi bicchieri che in tutta Pera si potevano ritrovare 
diede principio ad un dilettevole giuoco." 

* Relatione di 1637 : " Li ha levato il modo di piu potersi 
unire a conspirare contro la sua persona con la prohibitione 
del tabacco, con pena diforcada essereirremissibilmenteese- 
guita et di tutti quelli ridotti dove si beveva il caffe, che e un' 
acqua nera che fanno d'una specie di zece che vien dal Cairo, 
molto giovevole al capo et al stomacho et cio perche non 
habbino occasione come facevano prima, d'ivi fermarsi et 
l'hore et i giorni intieri a diseorrere et far radunanze." All 
the other particulars are from the same Relatione. 

t Ibid. " I piu pregiati sono i confinanti di Buda nel 
regno d'Ungheria e i confinanti di Bossina col stato della 
rep. Veneta ; havendogli gli essercitii frequenti nell' armeg- 
giare con discapito loro continue Sono arditi alia zuffa poco 
meno delli nostri, da quali giornalmente vanno apprendendo 
qualche gesto nell' armi, assuefacendosi all' uso delli terzetti 
e pestoni d'arcione, senza pero progressi considerabili per la 
poca attitudine che gli vien permessa del cielo a pro dei fideli." 



Bagdad, and he actually captured the city ; but if 
he did, it was only by driving back the fugitive 
soldiers to the fight with his sword, and killing his 
vizier with his own hand. 

But, after all, strong and self-sustained as Amu- 
rath might seem, he was not free from the influ- 
ence of the serai. He divested his pious mother 
indeed of her credit and authority, and twice 
banished her to the old palace. She had nothing 
in her power unless it were to mitigate the effects 
of some of his evil deeds by presents, or to redeem 
unfortunate debtors from prison, that she might 
thereby obtain the blessings of Heaven for her son. 
But, on the other hand, he gave himself up with- 
out reserve to his favourites. There are a multi- 
tude of stories about his fondness for the drunken 
Mustafa. Our Relatione mentions his silahdar, a 
Bosnian, who enjoyed his full favour. Amurath 
gave him a special body guard of 3000 men, who 
were implicitly at his command, and exalted him 
so that he would no longer attend the divan, be- 
cause he was too proud to pay deference to the 
grand vizier, and he bestowed his daughter upon 
him. The sultan used to say, that this man was per- 
fectly on a par with himself. Indeed, whoever made 
a present to the master did not forget the servant; 
the one would have been in vain without the other. 

We know that the sultan loved gold. We are as- 
sured that neither prayers nor intercessions, neither 
law nor justice availed with him so much as gold, for 
which he displayed a thirst there was no allaying *. 
There was no need of seeking sumptuous stuffs or 
costly manufactures for him ; the number of purses 
presented to him was all he looked too. Hence 
every one strove to appear poorer than he really 
was. The use of gold and silver utensils was 
shunned ; men hid their money, and dreaded lest 
they should provoke the sultan's two passions at 
once, his rapacity and his thirst for blood. 

Such was the manner in which Amurath swayed 
the state. Undoubtedly he filled his exchequer ; 
undoubtedly he secured his personal safety, and he 
died in his bed as padishah. But the means of 
terror that made him secure paralyzed the energies 
of the empire ; the sword that won him wealth 
robbed the realm of those men, of those names 
that awed Christendom f. 

Conclusion. 

The Ottoman empire was founded not by a 
people, not by a ruling stock, nor yet by soldiers 
freely combined; but, if we are not wholly mis- 
taken, by a lord and his bondsmen. Like the 
khalifs, whom we picture to ourselves with the 
Koran in one hand and the sword in the other, this 
warlike family, filled with a wild religious delusion, 
and fired with the lust of conquest, flung them- 
selves on all their neighbours, and thought to sub- 

* Ibid. " Arse di questa sete dell' oro nel diletto che 
prese impatronandosi di un milione di zecchini che trovossi 
nelle faculta di Rezep Bassa suo cognato, quando levo gli la 
vita : il quale tanto affannossi a here che fatto idropico piu 
che possiede, piu brama." 

t Ibid. " Come successe a miei giorni ad Abasa Passa, 
— il quale mentre si persuase di vedere soggiogata laPolonia 
et forse poi debellata la Christianity con somministrar nella 
mente regia vasti pensieri et speranze di felicissimi eventi, 
quando meno pensava, precipito della gratia, restando estinto 
con un pezzo di laccio. Et il simile occorse al capitain del 
mare Zafer Passa." 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



■21 



jugate the world. The name of the lord has pro- 
perly become that of the whole body. 

Now, when the ties between the lord and the 
bondsmen grew slack, when the inward impulse 
declined, and the efforts for conquest were checked 
in mid career, there ensued what might have been 
expected ; things fell into more natural bearings 
towards each other. That they should return 
completely to a natural condition was not possible, 
since they had set out from a principle at variance 
with humanity, from despotism. This principle 
was propagated anew through every subordinate 
member, and so became inextinguishable. 

After the Ottomans ceased to be conquerors 
they remained encamped in the midst of their old 
strongholds. There is a proverb, that no grass 
grows where the foot of an Ottoman horse hath 
once trodden ; and it seems amply confirmed by 
the desolation of the fairest countries of the world 
fallen under their sway. It is true that many of 
I them possess virtues that adorn the man ; they are 
lauded as free from falsehood, stedfast, beneficent, 
and hospitable ; but they have never attained to a 
liberal developement of the intellectual powers ; 
they have evermore remained barbarians. Their 
conceptions of what is beautiful in material things 
scarcely extend beyond the charms of gold and of 
women ; they evince hardly a trace of a disposi- 
tion to bring home the natural world to their 
understandings by a cognizance applied to the 
reality of things, not to the illusions of fancy; they 
live and move among the relics of a nobler exist- 
ence, and they heed them not. Errors there are 
that engross and penetrate the whole soul, that 



render the eye purblind to all that is intellectual 
and to the brightness of truth, and that cramp life 
in, within the bounds of a dull self-sufficiency. 
Such errors are theirs. 

Yet their state cannot be denied the possession 
of a certain inward vitality. It is always conceiv- 
able that a sultan should return to the qualities of 
his predecessors, and brace anew the relaxed 
sinews of the empire : such a possibility was admitted 
by Muradgea d'Ohsson in his own day. Or a vizier 
may overcome the obstacles thrown in his way by the 
serai and the body-guards, and arouse the people to 
greater endeavours. This was really the case with 
the Kiuprilis. The first of these made use of the 
body-guards to rid himself of the favourites in the 
serai who stood in his way ; after this he con- 
trived to master the soldiery in their turn, and 
thenceforth he kept them busy with war after war. 
The Ottomans were then at least a match for their 
neighbours. They conquered Candia from the 
Venetians, and often appeared victoriously on their 
frontiers. 

Thus they have continued to subsist for centu- 
ries even in their decay. It has been then." good 
fortune, first, that there has broken out in the east 
no national movement like those of old to which 
they owed their own success ; and next, that since 
the European policy has reached its mature growth, 
there exists in the west that jealousy with which 
each of our states is watched by all the rest seve- 
rally and collectively : this has always in their 
utmost dangers procured them allies, and brought 
them safety. 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



INTRODUCTION. 



We turn from the east to the west, from a Turkish 
slave-state to a Romano-German monarchy. 

The total contrast strikes us instantaneously; the 
contrast between a state of which the sovereign is 
lord and unlimited proprietor, and one which, based 
on individual freedom, confers just so much autho- 
rity ob the sovereign, as is requisite to defend that 
freedom from foes without and foes within. The 
oriental monarch is sole autocrat among serfs, and 
even the ancient Roman imperial authority had 
merged into that condition : the Germanic sove- 
reign, on the contrary, is the protector of the com- 
mon freedom, the upholder of personal rights, the 
safeguard of the country. 

If the distinction is even still striking and self- 
evi;lent. it was yet more so in former times, when 
there reigned in the east monarchs of distinguished 
personal qualities, who swayed their states at will 
in perfect subjection and unity; whilst in the west 
privileges, and the chartered and indefeasible rights 
of individuals and of subordinate assemblies, re- 
stricted and hindered the power of the sovereign. 

The latter was the condition of the Spanish em- 
pire. It was far from being a state in our sense of 
the word, a state of organic unity, pervaded by a 
single ruling interest. It had not been so put to- 



gether by conquest that any one province had lost 
its local rights, or that any leading division could 
have asserted and maintained its pretensions to 
command the rest: but it consisted of co-ordinate 
parts, each of which had its own rights; of a mul- 
titude of separate provinces of German, French, 
Italian, Castilian, Catalonian, and Basque tongues; 
provinces of dissimilar traditions and customs, 
unlike laws, discordant character, yet homogeneous 
rights. If we ask what it was that cemented these 
various provinces together, and kept them com- 
bined, we find that it was no inherent community of 
interests, but a casual inheritance that had joined 
them to each other; and that even when war was 
the immediate efficient cause of their union, it was 
always a war of inheritance, and they were com- 
bined together under the sovereign upon whom 
they devolved. The principle of inheritance was 
not however identical throughout them all, and the 
sovereign stood in a different relation to each seve- 
ral country composing the empire. The long title 
given themselves by the princes of the house of 
Habsburg was no mere piece of ostentation, as the 
French court was pleased to consider it, but their 
monarchy was in reality quite different in Castile 
from what it was in Sicily or in Aragon : in Flan- 



28 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



ders they were nothing but counts, in Guipuscoa 
their authority was founded on the fact that they 
were barons and hereditary lords of the country; 
whilst the American possessions belonged to them 
as a sort of crown domains. This diversity in the 
nature of their authority is indicated by their titles. 

If we now proceed to contemplate this monarchy 
and its development in the course of a century, we 
find two antagonizing forces present themselves to 
view. Though the sovereign was limited in all 
points, yet he acquired prominent importance from 
the fact that the union of the whole body was cen- 
tered in his person ; but for him it would not have 
existed. Frequently we see him called upon to 
direct the energies of the several countries in a 
common enterprize ; he seeks to rule them all upon 
one general principle. Will the provinces be able 
under these circumstances to maintain their sepa- 
rate existence, and to abide by their ancient usages ? 
Or will the sovereign force them into more inti- 
mate coalition ? Will he compel them to perform 
his will ? They confront him in their individuality. 

This division constitutes the foremost subject of 
our inquiry. It is not our purpose to set forth in 
detail the relations in which the monarchy stood to 
the rest of Europe ; we must take some notice of 
these, but only as a subordinate consideration. Our 
intention is rather to set before the reader the 
struggle within the range of the empire itself, be- 
tween the supreme authority and the isolated in- 
terests of the several provinces. First we shall 
consider the character and the designs of the rulers, 
including the kings and their councils; secondly, 
the resistance they encountered in the several pro- 
vinces, and the greater or less success with which 
they combated this ; lastly, the state economy they 
now established, and the conditions in which the 
provinces were placed. 

Our views are not aimed however merely at the 
general aspect of the combined whole : it is not by 
such means alone that nature and history engage 
our sympathy. Man fixes his eye with lively curi- 
osity, first of all, on the individual object. Happy 
is he to whom it is granted to comprehend it at 
once in the essence of its being, and in the fulness 
of its peculiar phenomena. 



CHAPTER I. 



OF THE KINGS. 



Charles V. 



In the pictures which the old legends give us of 
their heroes, they now and then set before us some 
who spend a long period of their youth sitting idly 
at home, but who, when they have once bestirred 
themselves never rest again, but rush on from en- 
terprise to enterprise, with indefatigable buoyancy 
of spirit. It is not till the energies are fully aroused 
that they find the career befitting them. 

Charles V.* may be compared with the charac- 
ters of such a cast. He was but sixteen when he 
was called to the throne, but he was far from having 
then arrived at the condition suitable for under- 

* Though he was the first of his name of Spain, we con- 
tinue to give him the designation by which he was known to 
the rest of Europe. 



taking its duties. People were long disposed to 
apply to him a nickname given his father, because 
he relied too implicitly on his counsellors. His 
constant byeword was, " Not yet." A. Croi com- 
pletely governed him and his whole realm. Even 
whilst his arcnies were subjugating Italy, and win- 
ning repeated victories over the bravest enemies, 
he himself sat still in Spain, and was regarded as 
insensible and indifferent, weak and dependent. 
Such he was thought to be till 1529, when he ap- 
peared hi Italy in his thirtieth year *. 

How very different did he show himself there 
from what had been expected ! for the first time 
how totally his own master, and how fully decided ! 
His privy council had been unwilling that he should 
go to Italy, had warned him against John Andrew 
Doria, and suggested to him suspicions as to Genoa. 
It was beheld with astonishment that he neverthe- 
less went to Italy, that he reposed his confidence in 
that very Doria, and that he persisted in his deter- 
mination to disembark in Genoa. So it was through- 
out. No minister was observed to possess any pre- 
ponderating interest ; Charles himself gave no evi- 
dence of passion or precipitation, but all his reso- 
lutions were mature, all were deliberately weighed; 
his first word was his lastf. 

This was the first thing noticed in him; next to 
that, how personally active, how industrious he was. 
It required some patience to listen to the long 
speeches of the Italian ambassadors; he took pains 
to understand the complicated relations of their 
sovereigns and powers. The Venetian ambassador 
was surprised to find him not a little more accessi- 
ble and free of speech than he had been three 
years before in Spain J. He expressly selected a 
lodging in Bologna, from which he could visit the 
pope unobserved, that he might do so as frequently 
as possible, and arrange all disputed points with his 
holiness. 

From that time forth he began to direct his 
negotiations, and to lead his armies in person ; he 
began to hasten continually from country to coun- 
try, wherever the wants of the moment and the 
posture of affairs required his presence. We find 
him now at Rome complaining to the cardinals of 
the implacable hostility of Francis I., now in Paris 
courting and winning the favour of Estampes § ; 
frequently in Germany presiding at the diet for the 
appeasing of religious discord, and again in the 
cortes of Castile exerting himself to have the tax 
of the Servicio voted. These are peaceful occupa- 
tions: but we often see him at the head of his 
army. He crosses the Alps into France, and over- 
runs Provence ; he advances to the Marne, and 
strikes terror into Paris. He then turns away to 
the east and the south. He checks the victorious 
career of Soliman on the Raab ; he seeks and 

* Micheli, Relatione d'Inghilterra, MS. : "L'imperatore da 
ognuno o de la maggior parte era tenuto per stupido o per 
addormentato, et poi si puo dire che ad un tratto et inespet- 
tatamente si suegliasse et riusci cosi vivo, cosi ardito et cosi 
bravo come sa Vostra Signoria." [The emperor was thought 
by all, or almost all, to be stupid or lethargic, and then he 
awoke, as it were, all at once, and became so full of life, so 
ardent, and so brave, as your signory is aware.] 

f Storia Florentina di Messer Benedetto Varchi, ix. 228. 
233. Sigonius, de vita Andreae Doriae, 243. 

J Contarini, Relazionedi Bologna. Marzo, 1530, MS. 

§ Zenocarus a Scauwenburgo : De republica et vita 
Caroli Maximi. Gandavi, 1560, fol. p. 175. 



CHARLES Y. 



29 



assails the crescent at Algiers. The army that had 
served him in Africa follows him to the Elbe, and 
the war cry of Spain is heard on the heaths of 
Lochau. Charles is now the busiest sovereign in 
the world. He frequently sails across the Medi- 
terranean, across the Ocean. Meanwhile his ma- 
riners are discoverers in unploughed seas, his sol- 
diers conquerors of untrodden lands. Even at such 
remote distance he remains their ruler and then' 
lord. His motto, "More, further," is gloriously 
realized. 

Such is his life contemplated as a whole ; full of 
activity after unusually long repose. It may be 
remarked that the same phenomena, at first inert- 
ness and a passive looking on, by and by action, 
continually recur in the several circumstances of 
all his most stirring life. 

Although the general cast of his will was tho- 
roughly determined, still his resolutions were taken 
but slowly, and step by step. His first reply to 
every proposal was indefinite, and it was necessary 
to beware of taking his vague expressions for a 
positive sanction *. He then pondered over the 
matter, repeatedly turned over the arguments for 
and against, and put the whole train of reasoning 
into such perfect connection and sequence, that 
whoever granted him his first proposition was 
forced to admit his last. He paid a visit to the 
pope at Bologna, with a paper in his hand, on which 
he had accurately noted down all the points they 
had to discuss f. Granvella was the only one tc 
whom he used to communicate every intelligence, 
every proposal; the ambassadors always found that 
minister instructed as to every particular, even to 
the very words they had uttered. All measures 
were determined between him and Charles. These 
resolutions were taken slowly: Charles frequently 
delayed the cornier for some days beyond the ap- 
pointed time. 

But when things had been brought thus far, 
there was no power in the world that could bring I 
him to change his mind. It was said he would 
let the world perish rather than do anything upon 
compulsion J. There never was an instance known 
of his having been forced into anything by violence 
or by danger. He once made a frank confession on 
this point, saying to Contarini, " I am naturally 
given to abide obstinately by my own opinions. 1 '* ! 
"Sire," replied the other, "to abide by sound ! 
opinions is not obstinacy but stedfastness." " Ay, i 
but," said Charles, " I sometimes abide by unsound j 
ones §." 

But from resolving to executing the way is still j 
long. Charles felt an involuntary repugnance to ! 
taking things in hand, even though he very well j 
knew what was to be done. Tiepolo says of him [, 

* Relazione del CI. Monsignor Marino Cavallo, MS, : 
" Parla molte volte arnbiguo, quando importo : di modo che 
si gli ambaseiatori non sono b--n cauti, pud S. Maesta et li 
consiglieri dire con quella dubieta parole che intendere 
possono a questo et a quell' altro rnodo." 

t Contarini. " II papa mi ha detto, che ragionando con lui 
(Carlo) portava nn memoriale notato di sua rnano di tutte le 
cose che haveva a negotiare, per non lasciarne qualch' uno." 

X Cavallo: "Lasciera piu tosto ruinare il mondo che fa 
cosa violentata." 

§ Contarini : " Qualche fiate io son fermo in le cattive.*' 

II Relazione del convento di Nizza, MS. " Xelli pericoii 
delle cose sue proprie ritarda qualche volta tanto che pa- 
tiscono prima qualche incommodo." 



that in the year 1538, he dallied so long that his 
I cause was endangered, nay, actually injured in some 
! degree. Pope Julian III. was aware of this; he 
knew that Charles revenged him no doubt, but 
that he must first receive some thrusts before he 
would bestir himself *. The emperor often wanted 
I money too : the entanglements of policy offered 
him a thousand grotmds for hesitation and reflec- 
tion. 

While he was obliged to wait he kept his eye 
incessantly on his enemies. He watched them so 
narrowly that ambassadors were astonished to find 
i how well he was acquainted with their govern- 
ments, how happily he conjectured beforehand 
, what they would do f . At last came the occasion, 
the favourable or the urgent crisis. Then he was 
all alert, then he put into execution what he had 
perhaps pondered over for twenty years. 

Such was the policy which his foes regarded as 
j detestable craft, his friends as a paragon of pru- 
| dence. At any rate it can hardly be regarded as 
j an effect of choice, of deliberate volition. Thus to 
lie still, to gather information, to await, and not 
till long after to rise and strike the blow, all this 
was the very nature of this monarch. 

In how many other things did he display the 
same disposition ! He punished, but not till he had 
j borne a great deal. He rewarded, but not indeed 
at once. Many had to linger for years unpaid, and 
then he would provide for them with one of those 
fiefs or benefices, of which he had so many at his 
disposal that he could enrich whomsoever he 
pleased, without any cost to himself. By this 
means he brought others to endure any hardships 
that might befal them in his service. 

When his servants were putting on his armour 
he was observed to tremble all over : but once 
fully caparisoned he was full of courage, so much 
so that it was thought he was emboldened by the 
notion that an emperor had never been shot:":. 

Such a man, full of calmness and moderation, affa- j 
ble enough to accommodate himself to various per- 
sons, strict enough to keep many at once in subjec- j 
tion, appears to have been well fitted for presiding 
over a combination of several nations. It is alleged 
in praise of Charles that he conciliated the good will 
of the Netherlanders by his condescension, of the 
Italian? by his shrewdness, and of the Spaniards by 
his dignity. But what had he wherewith to please 
the Germans I His nature was incapable of attain- 
ing to that truehearted openness, which the Ger- 
man nation assuredly acknowledges, loves, and 
reveres in its men of distinction and high station. ■ 
Though he willingly imitated the manner in which 
the old emperors bore themselves towards princes 
and lords; though he took pains to assume Ger- 
man habits, and even wore his beard after the na- 
tional fashion then in Germany §, still he was 
always looked on as a foreigner by the Germans. 
A mounted artilleryman, whom he urged angrily 
to make more speed, let him feel the whip ; a 

* Lettera, MS. del Papa a Giovambattista di Monte, 
t Cavallo. 240 : " Conosce eccellentissimamente la natura 
di tutti li principi con chi lui negotia, et in questo spende 
gran tempo ad instruirsene di avantaggio. Perd quasi 
mai s'inganna de pronostici che fa di questa eccellentis- 
ma republica." 

1 Zenocarus a Scauwenburso. 
§ Ibid. p. 168. 



30 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



landsknecht at Algiers even levelled his weapon at 
him *, both these men having taken him for a Spa- 
niard. He fell at variance with the feelings of the 
nation, particularly after the war of Schmalkalde. 
His two opponents were called the Magnanimous; 
but he, Charles of Ghent, as he was called, was said 
to have laughed slily to think how he had taken the 
honest elector prisoner, and with what craft he 
had seized the person of the landgrave in Halle ! 
Whilst the Italians praised his simple habits, mark- 
ing how he rode into their towns with his brilliant 
and richly dressed escort, himself wrapped in a 
plain cloak f, the Germans found something to set 
off against this. When he was surprised by a 
shower of rain outside the walls of Naumburg, he 
sent into the city for his old bonnet, meanwhile 
putting the new one he was wearing under his 
arm. " Poor emperor, thought I to myself," says 
Sastrow, " warring away tons of gold, and standing 
bareheaded in the i*ain for the sake of a velvet 
cap J." In short, he was never quite at home in 
Germany. The dissensions of the country con- 
sumed all his exertions without affording him re- 
nown ; the climate was prejudicial to his health ; 
he was not well acquainted with the high German 
tongue ; the majority of the nation misunderstood 
and disliked him. 

It was late when his life began to be self-de- 
pendent, and its decline was early. His growth 
was long retarded, and a variety of aliments were 
sought to help it forward §. His constitutional 
development was unusually backward, till it was 
observed in the year 1521 that he was getting a 
beard and becoming more manly ||. From that time 
he enjoyed a long period of healthy adolescence. 
He began to love field sports. He more than once 
lost himself so far in the Alpuxarra, and in the 
Toledan moors, that no one could hear his hom, 
and he had to trust to some Morisco guide to show 
him the way home in the evening, lights being 
already placed in the city windows, and the bells 
rung to call the people to search after him He 
jousted on horseback sometimes in the lists, some- 
times in the open field ; he practised with his gun 
and his gineta ; nor did he recoil from exercises on 
foot **. The proposal to terminate his quarrel with 
Francis I. by single combat was on his part, at least, 
made in perfect seriousness. We have a portrait of 
him at this period of his life, the mouth closed and 
somewhat imperious, the eyes large and fiery, the 
features compressed ; the figure is full length, and 
he holds a hound by the collar. Gradually, however, 
yet too soon, the discrepancy began to show itself, 
which is noticed in most of his portraits between 
the upper and the lower half of his countenance. 
The lower half projects, the mouth is open, the 

* Sepulveda, de Rebus Gestis Caroli V. lib. xi. p. 19. 

t Ripamonte, Historia Mediolanensis ap. Graev. Verri, 
Storia di Milano, ii. 321, from Burigozzo. 

X Bartholornai Sastrowen, Herkommen, Lebenslauf, u.s.w. 
Bd. ii. 

§ Thomas Leodius, de vita Frederici Palatini, iii. 10. 
|| Petrus Martyr : Epistolarum Opus, Ep. 734. 
IT Sandoval : Vida y hechos del Emperador Carlos, xv. 
p. 811. 

** Cavallo: "Ha giostrato bene a lizza et a campo aperto. 
Ha combattuto alia sbarra. Ha giocato a canne et caroselle 
et ammazzato il tauro, et brevemente tutto quello che alia 
ginnetta et alia brida si puo fare." 



eyelids droop. At the moment when he first entered 
fully into active life, his healthy vigour was already 
gone, and it was with a strange feeling of envy he 
marked the eager appetite with which his private 
secretary, come fresh from a journey, devoured the 
roast meat set before him. In his thirty-sixth year, 
just as he was dressing in Naples, to make himself 
pleasing forsooth to the ladies, as he owtis, he ob- 
served the first white hairs on his temples. It was 
to no purpose he had them removed ; they always 
came again *. In his fortieth year he felt his 
strength half gone. He missed the old confidence 
in himself and in his fortune ; and it is remarkable 
that his memory was more tenacious of facts that 
had occurred to him before that year than after it, 
though the latter were so much more recent f. 
From that time he became particularly subject to 
the gout. He was obliged to travel for the most 
part in his litter. At times, indeed, he still brought 
down a stag or a wild hog in the chase ; but usu- 
ally he was obliged to content himself with going 
into the woods with his gun and shooting crows 
and daws. His enjoyment was to remain within 
doors, where his fool forced a half smile from him 
as he stood behind his chair at table, and his 
steward of the household, Monfalconet, amused 
and delighted him with his happy replies But 
his malady grew upon him apace. The gout, says 
Cavallo in 1550, flies frequently to his head, and 
threatens with sudden death. His physicians 
urgently advised him to leave Germany ; but the 
increasing entanglement of public affairs kept him 
fast in those regions. The tendency to gloomy so- 
litude which had long possessed him, now acquired 
overwhelming sti'ength; it was in point of fact the 
same that had so long kept his mother in the world 
a stranger to the world. Charles saw no one he had 
not expressly summoned to his presence. It often 
vexed him even to sign his name. The mere open- 
ing of a letter gave him a pain in his hand. He 
used to be for hours on his knees in a chamber 
hung with black, and lighted with seven tapers. 
When his mother died, he sometimes fancied he 
heard her voice calling him to follow her §. 

Tn this condition he resolved to quit life before 
he was yet removed by death. 

2. Philip II. 

If an intelligent man pondered over the posture 
of the world in those days, what must he have 
expected of the son of such a father \ 

It was manifest that only a sovereign of liberal feel- 
ings, only one more disposed to gratify the world and 
to enjoy it than to dispose of it after his own views, 
and capable of allowing others a spontaneous course 
of action, would have been in a condition, if not to 
reconcile the discordant feelings of the nations, at 
least to soothe them, and prevent the outbreak of 

* Extrait de la Relation du voyage de M* l'amiral de Cha- 
tillon vers l'Empereur Charles, in Ribier and in the Appen- 
dix to Rabutin's Memoires : Collect. Univers. xxxviii. 483. 

t Hormayr : " From papers never before made use of" in 
the Archiv fur Geographie, Historie, &rc. Jahrg. 1810, p. 8. 

% Cavallo: "II barone Monfalconetto, suo maestro di casa 
il quale in vero, per l'argutie et prontezze sue e per la liberta 
che si piglia di dire ogni cosa, e di giocondissima et dilettis- 
sima pratica al imperatore." 

§ Extrait. Zenocarus, Hormayr. Galuzzi, Storia del Gran- 
ducato di Toscaria, i. 2. 208. 



PHILIP II. 



31 



their passions. It was plain that the heir of the 
Spanish monarchy, destined to the sovereignty 
over such heterogeneous countries, had need of 
manners marked by dignified condescension and 
affability, and of a cheerful temper to win the con- 
fidence of every individual. If this was undoubt- 
edly to be wished, it might also perhaps have been 
expected. It might have been supposed that a 
sovereign, brought up under a sense of his great 
destiny, would have elevated his soul to a nobler 
view of things than such as is usually afforded by 
the narrowing influences of a meaner station. 
Reared in the feeling that he was the head of the 
nobility, should he not have sought to fashion his 
character to that cheerful, engaging chivalry, that 
sits so well on the young ? 

When Philip left Spain for the first time, and 
presented himself in other countries, the first thing 
remarked in him was the great external resem- 
blance he bore to his father. There was the same 
white rather than pale visage, the same fair hair, 
the same chin and mouth. Neither was tall ; 
Philip was somewhat less in stature, more neatly 
made, and weaker than his father *. The compa- 
rison was soon carried further. The son's features 
did not seem to indicate the acute penetration that 
characterized those of the father. It was per- 
ceived that Philip, far from vying with the latter in 
natural affability, was far surpassed by him in that 
respect. Whilst Charles was used, when escorted 
home by princes of the empire, to turn round, 
take off his hat, offer his hand to each and dismiss 
him with marks of amity, it was remarked with 
displeasure, that when the same attention was paid 
to Philip, he never once looked round him, but 
straight forward, as he ascended the steps to his 
apartments f . He took no delight in the chase, or 
in arms; he even declined the invitations of his 
father, preferring to remain at home, and to con- 
verse with his favourites J. It was evident that he 
lacked all those qualities that engage the affections 
of the people : the Italians and the Flemings were 
not a little averse to him, the Germans decidedly 
so. 

It seemed, however, on his second departure from 
Spain in 1554, as though he abjured his former 
haughty, repulsive bearing, as though he sought to 
resemble his father in his outward deportment, and 
had got rid of that foolish fancy of which he was 
accused, namely, that he the son of an emperor was 
more than his father, who was but the son of a. 
king. He displayed more condescension and affa- 
bility, gave audience readily, and returned satis- 
factory answers §. But in reality there was no 
change in him. He took heed to himself, because 
he wished to please the English, over whom he 
desired to be king. He nevertheless retained that 

* Micheli, Relatione d'Inghilterra : "E il re Filippo la 
stessa imagine dell' imperatore suo patre conformissimo di 
carne et di faccia et di lineamenti, con quella bocca et labro 
pendente et con tutte l'altre qualita dell' imperatore, ma di 
minore statura." 

t Sastrowen, i. 269. 

X Cavallo, Rel. " Ha piacere di starsi in camera co' suoi 
favoriti a raggionare di cose private, et se talhora l'impera- 
tore lo manda in visita, si scusa per godere la solita quiete." 

§ Micheli. " Ha il costume et maniere dell' imperatore 
imitando per quanto pud le vie et attioni sue di dignita et 
humanita, havendo del tutto lasciata quell' altierezza con la 
quale usci la prima volta di Spagna et riusci cosi odioso." 



proud, isolated impassibility which the Spaniards 
call sosiego *. Sympathy and frankness were no 
virtues of his ; he did not even concern himself to 
display a bountiful character ; he showed himself 
averse to all personal participation in war. 

From the time he returned to Spain after the 
peace of 1559, he never quitted the peninsula again. 
Even there he abstained from travelling from 
place to place, as his father and the kings before 
him had done. He fixed his royal residence in the 
castle of Madrid, and only left it to pursue that 
dreary road, shadowed by no tree, enlivened by no 
brook, that led to the Escurial, which he built 
among small naked hills, in a stony valley, as a 
residence for monks of the order of San Geronimo, 
and as a sepulchre for his father; or to go in spring 
to Aranjuez, where indeed he accompanied the chase 
to the mountains, and condescended to alcaldes and 
monteros, but without asking them a word about any 
thing else than their offices, or suffering them to speak 
of any thing besides their business. " Every one," 
says Cabrera, "was duly regarded according to his 
station f." At times we find him in the woods 
about Segovia, and once in Lisbon ; but with these 
exceptions always at home. At first he used to 
show himself there on popular holydays, afterwards 
he suffered himself to be seen only once or twice 
a-year in a gallery leading from his residence to 
his chapel ; and in his latter years he desisted even 
from this, and remained constantly shut up in his 
apartments J. The habitual expression of his face 
and figure was that of imperturbable calmness, a 
gravity carried to the utmost pitch, and its effect 
was felt to be exceedingly depressing. Even prac- 
tised and esteemed orators were put out when they 
stood before him, and he measured them as usual 
with his eyes from head to foot. a Compose your- 
self (Sosegaos)," he would then say to them. He 
used to smile slightly in replying to any one §. 

Philip II. lacked, as we see, the physical activity 
of his father. He was no friend to those constant 
journeys, those hurried excursions to all places, 
wherever the sovereign's presence seemed neces- 
sary. He agreed with those who had applauded 
Ferdinand the Catholic, because he had rather 
caused his foreign wars to be carried on, than 
directed them in person, and who called to mind 
that even the armies of Charles had been more 
successful under the command of Pescara and 
Leira than under his own ||. Philip carried on 
war, but he remained aloof from it. A stirring life 
makes the soul more open, freer, and warmer. If 
there was always a certain rigidity of temper ob- 

* Tiepolo, MS. " E v di natura tardissimo, essendo flegma- 
tico di complessione, et e anco per volonta tale per osservar 
maggior decoro nelle cose sue." 

t Cabrera, Felipe el segundo, p. 598. 

t Thom. Contarini, Rel. della Spagna anno 1593, MS. 
Informat. Politt. xi. 474: " Soleva per il passato lasciarsi 
vedere dal popolo una o due volte l'anno per un corridore 
che dalle sue stanze passa nella sua capella, ma hora sta 
sempre ritirato." 

§ Tiepolo, Relat. della Spagna: "E ajutato d'un poco di 
suo riso, che fa ordinariamente nel rispondere et rende ad 
ognuno molto amabile." 

|| Micheli, 76: " Levata la necessity di andarvi so che puo 
li occorrere di far guerre : egli stima et approva piu il pro- 
ceder del re cattolico suo avo, che le faceva fare tutte per 
mano dei suoi capitani senza andarvi lui in persona, che'l 
proceder dell' imperatore suo padre, che ha voluto farle lui : 
et a questo lo consigliano li Spagnuoli, li suoi intimi." 



32 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



servable in Philip, it might possibly have been 
owing to the want of this activity. 

On the other hand, Philip inherited from his 
father a larger share of the latter's energy in the 
affairs of the cabinet. True he avoided, even here 
too, all immediate intercourse with others, and we 
neither find him negotiating in person, nor taking 
part in the sittings of the council of state. But we 
shall see how the machinery of his government 
was so arranged that all the affairs of his wide 
spread empire tended to his table as to a common 
centre. Every resolution of his council of any 
importance was laid before him on a sheet of paper, 
on the margin of which he noted his own views and 
emendations*. The petitions and the letters ad- 
dressed to him, the suggestions of his ministers, 
and the secret reports, were all laid before him in 
his closet. His business and his pleasure was to 
read them, to reflect upon, and to reply to them. 
Seated there, sometimes assisted by a trusty secre- 
tary, but often quite alone, he governed the large 
portion of the world subject to his sway, and exer- 
cised a kind of inspection and control over the rest; 
there he set in motion the hidden machinery that 
moved a great portion of the public affairs of the 
age. His diligence in this occupation Avas inde- 
fatigable. We have letters written by him at 
midnight : we find him dispatching the unpleasant 
affairs of Flanders at one of his country seats, 
whilst his carriage halted on his way to join the 
queen. If he had to be present at an entertain- 
ment, he fixed it for a day on which there was at 
least no regular post to send off. He did not make 
his short journeys even to the Escurial without 
taking his papers with him, and perusing them by 
the way. As Margaret of Parma and Granvella, 
though inhabiting the same palace, communed 
together more by letter than by word of mouth, so 
he too wrote innumerable notes to his confidential 
ministers : Antonio Perez had two chests full of 
such autographs. Thus he was beyond comparison 
the most fully employed man of business in the 
world. His attention to his finances was uninter- 
rupted, and we find him at times more accurately 
informed respecting them than his presidents f. 
He wished to know every thing that concerned his 
dominions. He had materials collected for a gene- 
ral statistical account of Spain for his own use, six 
volumes of which work are still preserved in the 
Escurial J. But he wished his information to 
extend even to particulars. He had correspondents 
in every diocese, who reported to him how the 
clergy and the holders of the benefices conducted 
themselves. He had always a prelate at each of 
the universities who acquainted him how the 
members of the colleges were versed in the sciences. 
Those who were candidates for any place he usually 

* " E diligentissimo nel govern o dello stato, et vuole che 
tutte le cose di qualche importantia passino per le sue mani, 
perche tutte le deliberationi di momento gli sono mandate 
da i consiglieri, scritte sopra un foglio di carta, lasciandone 
la meta per margine, nella quale poi S. M. ne scrive il suo 
parere, aggiungendo, scernendo et corrigendo il tutto a suo 
piacere. E sopravanzandole tempo lo spende tutto in rive- 
dere et sottoscrivere suppliche etc., nel che s'impiega3 o 4 
hore continue, si che non tralascia mai per alcuno minimo 
punto la fatica." 

t See a calculation by Philip in a letter to Eraso, Cabrera, 
1166. 

t Rehfues, Spanien nach eigener Ansicht, iv. S. 1348. 



knew, even before they were presented, as well as 
though he had been personally acquainted with 
them : he was aware of their character and their 
peculiarities; and once, when they were speaking to 
him in praise of a certain person's learning and 
ability, he retorted, " You say nothing to me of his 
amours *." Thus he ruled his dominions in peace ; 
in turbulent times he redoubled his attention. It 
excited wonder to see, when the troubles broke out 
in Flanders, how accurately he was informed about 
all persons who might have had any leaning to the 
new opinions, how exactly he knew, not only their 
meetings, but also the age, appearance, character, 
and intercourse of each ; and how, instead of re- 
ceiving information from Margaret on these mat- 
ters, he was, on the contrary, able to impart it to 
herf. Now, it was just in the same manner he 
managed his foreign affairs. He had at all the 
leading courts, not only public ambassadors who 
sent him reports, or came to Spain to give him 
information by word of mouth, but he had also 
secret emissaries whose letters were addressed 
directly to himself. A historian might well cherish 
the wish that he might share with this king the 
comprehensive and thorough knowledge he pos- 
sessed of his own times. Philip sat and read all 
these reports, and concentrated all their contents, 
and directed them to his own ends. He weighed 
them for himself. If he thought good he com- 
municated them to one or other of his confidential 
ministers ; if not, he buried them in perpetual 
silence J. Thus he lived in complete solitude, and 
yet was personally acquainted, as it were, with the 
whole world ; secluded from its contemplation, and 
yet its real governor ; himself in almost motion- 
less repose, and yet the originator of movements 
that affected all the world. Grown old and grey, 
weary and dim-sighted over his toils, he still did 
not give them up. His daughter, the infanta Isa- 
bella, who was moulded entirely after his own 
heart, for whom he had a cordial regard, and to 
whom he would go even at night, and communi- 
cate to her some welcome news, used to sit for 
three or four hours with him ; and though he did 
not admit her into all his secrets, still she helped 
him to read the petitions and memorials of private 
persons, and to provide for the affairs of the home 
administration §. 

Now what was the aim of such incessant indus- 
try throughout his long life ? Was it the welfare 
of the kingdoms of which he swayed the sceptre ? 
the prosperity of his subjects ? This might have 
been supposed in the beginning of his reign, so long 
as he seemed to abjure his father's schemes, and 

* Cabrera, p. 1064, and elsewhere. The Cortes expressed 
a wish in 1554 that visitadores should be secretly sent to all 
the pueblos to inquire into the habits of the regidores, the 
judicial personages, and the knights. Peticion xxviii. 

t Strada, who himself possessed more than one hundred 
letters from Philip to Margaret, De Bello Belg. iv. p. 81. 

t Contarini. " Usa S. M. una squisitissima secretezza 
nelle cose sue ; .... ma e altro tanto desiderosa di scoprire 
i disegni et secreti degl' altri principi, nel che impiega ogni 
cura et diligentia, spendendo una infinita quantita d'oro in 
spie in tutte le parti del mondo et appresso a tutti i principi, 
et queste spie spesse volte hanno anco ordine d'indrizzare le 
lettere a S. M., la quale non communica le cose importanti 
a persona alcuna et solamente quelle di Fiandra al duca di 
Parma." 

§ Contarini : " Ajutandogli ella a leggere queste tali scrit- 
ture." Cf. Strada ii. lib. vii. p. 216. 



PHILIP II. 



33 



his thirst for glory, and to look only to his own 
dominions. Bnt he soon began to play a very busy 
part in the complicated affair's of Europe. Was it 
then his purpose, as it was perhaps in his power, 
to heal the wounds of his times % We cannot affirm 
either the one or the other. Obedience and the 
catholic faith at home, the catholic faith and sub- 
jection in all other countries, this was what he had 
at heart, this was the aim of all his labours. He 
was himself devoted, with monkish attachment, to 
the outward observances of the catholic worship. 
He kissed the hand of a priest after mass, to show 
archdukes who visited him what reverence is due 
to such men. To a lady of rank, who stood upon the 
steps of the altar, he said, a That is no place either 
for you or me." How diligently, with what care and 
expense, did he gather the sacred relics from all 
countries that had become protestant, that such 
precious things might not be lost to Catholicism and 
Christendom *. This was surely not from indwell- 
ing religion ; yet a sort of indwelling religion, capa- 
ble of swaying the moral character, had grown up 
in him, out of the conviction that he was born to 
uphold the external service of the church, that he 
was the pillar of the church, that such was his 
commission from God. If by this means he brought 
it to pass, that the majority of Spaniards, full of 
the like feelings, did, as an Italian says, " not merely 
love, not merely reverence, but absolutely adore 
him, and deem his commands so sacred, that they 
could not be violated without offence to God + ;" at 
the same time, by a singular illusion (if indeed we 
are justified, in supposing his conduct to have sprung 
from an illusion of his own, and not to have been 
deliberately pursued to delude others), he came 
to regard the progress of his own power and the 
progress of religion as identified, and to behold the 
latter in the former. In this he was confirmed by 
the people of the Netherlands, who revolted simul- 
taneously from him, and from the pope. In truth, 
the zeal that animated him was none other than 
that which had actuated Charles the Bold and 
Maximilian I., the zeal, namely, of exalting the 
Burgundian and Habsburg house, which had be- 
come conjoined w T ith religious purposes since the 
days of Charles V., only the union of these two 
motives was much stronger in him : and if he 
sought to conquer England, and to obtain the 
crown of France for his nephew and his daughter, 
it was with the full persuasion that he was acting 
for the best interests of the world, and for the weal 
of souls. If, on the one hand, his reserve and his 
gravity unfitted him for presiding over the nations 
he ruled with kindness, affability, and as a father ; 
on the other hand his narrow and fanatical constitu- 
tion of mind placed it far beyond his power to be- 
come the reconciling spirit of his distracted times ; 
he was, on the contrary, a great promoter and aug- 
menter of the discord. 

Two points are further to be remarked, with 
reference to his administration. The one, as re- 
gards his ministers; the other, as regards the 
means he employed to obtain his ends. 

* Micheli ; above all Cabrera. 

t Relatione et sommario dell' historie anticbe et moderne 
di Spagna, in the Tesoro politico i. Contarini: " Questa 
opinione che di lui si ha, rende le sue leggi piu sacrosancte 
et inviolabili." 



Whether it was from the compulsory pressure of 
his multitudinous businesses, or that he was in- 
duced thereto by personal confidence, he left his 
ministers great freedom, and an open range of 
action. Espinosa was long called the monarch of 
Spain * ; Alva had his hands free in the Nether- 
lands. We will look more minutely into the changes 
of his ministers, and their position. He seemed 
to be dependent on, and ruled by, many of his con- 
fidential advisers. Moreover, it was to no purpose 
any one proffered a complaint against these men : 
his first answer was, that he relied on his advisers ; 
and however often their accusers returned to the 
charge, they were always met with the same re- 
ply. People complained, that not only the inte- 
rests of foreign powers, but those of the king 
himself, were betrayed and ruined through the 
private feelings and passions of these ministers f. 
Now, it is very well worth noting his maimer of 
dealing with them. To their best suggestions he 
seemed to lend but half an ear, and for a while it 
was as though they had said nothing ; but at last, 
he put their ideas into operation, as though they 
had proceeded from himself. He used to say, that he 
stayed away from the council of state, in order that 
the passions of the several members might be free 
to display themselves the more unreservedly, and 
that if he had but a faithful reporter of all that 
passed, he could have no better means of informa- 
tion J. But he went still farther than this. He 
suffered incensed enemies to pursue each other 
into his very cabinet, and he received the memorials 
of the one party against the other §. As the close 
secresy he observed on all things was notorious, 
no one scrupled to confide to him the most private 
matters, and things that would never have been im- 
parted to any other. Such communications did not 
always produce the full effect intended, but some of 
them did ; and Philip was always filled with suspi- 
cion. Never was it easier for any one than for him 
to withdraw his accustomed confidence, and to stint 
in his wonted favour. For awhile he would con- 
ceal his secret displeasure. Perhaps the minister 
had important matters still in hand, perhaps his 
personal co-operation was necessary for the accom- 
plishment of some purpose. So long as the case 
stood thus, he dealt with him warily as with a 
foreign power, and frequently, meanwhile, would 
neither comply with the minister's desires, nor 
absolutely reject them. But at last, his displeasure 
broke out all at once. Cabrera remarks of no few, 
that his disfavour was their death. So much may 
have been implied by the saying proverbial at his 
court, that it was not far from his smile to his dag- 
ger. The whole spirit of his favourites hung on 
his good will ; without it they sank into nothing- 
ness. 

As he changed his ministers, so too he changed 
the measures they were to carry out, ever keeping 

* Famianus Strada, de Bello Belgico, i. lib. vi. p. 161. 

+ Tiepolo : " II ritrovar poi S. M. per ottener piu di quello 
ha fatto il detto consiglio e cosa in tutto superflua : per il 
che da se non risponde cosa alcuna, ma si rimette a quelio e 
stato risoluto. II che causa senza dubio danno ai negotii. 
Spesso avviene che il giuditio di suoi ministri e corrutto o 
da interesse particolare o da alcuna passione." 

I Cartas de Antonio Perez. 

§ For instances see Cabrera passim. He mentions " pa- 
peles que le davan emulos invidiosos y malos por odio y 
pasion." 

D 



34 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



his ends steadily in view. How numerous, and 
how various, were the courses he struck out in the 
affairs of Flanders alone *. It is a mistake, to 
suppose he knew how to adopt no other devices 
than those of force. Undoubtedly he acquiesced in 
Alva's cruel measures, not however from cruelty, 
but for the sake of the result he expected. When 
this did not ensue, he selected Requesens for the 
express reason, that he was a moderate man, and 
commissioned him to employ milder means f. He 
sent don John, who was acceptable to the people of 
the Netherlands, because he appeared to be their 
countryman %, with definite orders to conclude a 
peace. Failing in this, he again reverted to force. 
In this he may be compared to his great grand- 
father, Maximilian, who was continually adopting 
new means to arrive at his ends : only Maximilian 
broke off at an early stage of his proceedings, whilst 
Philip always pushed matters to the very utmost ; 
Maximilian always seemed highly excited, Philip 
invaluably maintained the most unruffled compo- 
sure. Never did he give way to any impulse of 
temper §. There never arrived a despatch from 
Flanders, however good or bad its news, that could 
produce the least change in his countenance. On 
receiving the first intelligence of the victory at 
Lepanto, the greatest that had been achieved by 
Christendom for 300 years, he said, " Don John 
risked a great deal," and not a word more. Upon 
the greatest mischance that could befal him, the 
loss of his fleet, on which he had exhausted the 
resources of Spain, on which he had built the 
grandest hopes, and which he had deemed invin- 
cible, he said, " I sent it out against men, and not 
against the billows ;" and having said this, he 
seemed perfectly calm. The only gesticulation he 
was observed to make, when anything occurred 
quite contrary to his expectation, or when any word 
let fall provoked him very much, was that same 
one which is noticed in the gravest Arabs ; he 
clutched his beard in his hand. 

There are in this dismal life some spots of sur- 
passing gloom. Why was his son Don Carlos dis- 
posed to rebel against him ? It is now but too 
certain that he wished to do so. Assuredly the 
prince presented a decided contrast to his father ; 
the latter, particularly at first, all calm and pacific ; 
the former, on the contrary, fired with an enthu- 
siastic love of arms, ardently attached to the sol- 
diery, and of an impetuosity of character that dis- 
dained to conceal ambition, cruelty, or any other 
passion. He displayed a brilliant munificence, 
strikingly opposed to the king's frugality ||. The 

* This was remarked by Cabrera, lib. xi. p. 869. " El 
rey catolico haviendo usado para reduccion de los Flamencos 
del rigor, blandura : castigo, perdon : armas, paz : y sin 
fruto. 

t Cabrera mentions the "medio di concerto y blandura 
que S. Magestad havia mostrado querer provar tras los de 
las armas y rigor." 

% Lippomano, Relatione di Napoli. 

§ Contarini : " E' gravissimo in tutte sue operationi, si 
che non esce mai parola della bocca sua ne atto alcuno dalla 
sua persona che non sia molto bene ponderato et pesato. 
Modera felicissimamente tutti i suoi affetti." 

|| Tiepolo : " E nelle attioni sue cosi ardente et si pu6 dir 
precipitoso. Si sdegna facilmente et prorumpe tanto che si 

pud dir crudele E amico della verita et nemico de 

buffoni. Si diletta di gioie, perche di man sua ne intaglia. 



more restrictions there were imposed on him, the 
more passionate became his inclinations. He was 
still very young when the question began to be 
agitated of entrusting him with some lieutenancy. 
But this was not done. He had reason to expect a 
greater degree of independence from his marriage, 
which was already negotiated and agreed on ; but 
the father took to himself the son's destined bride. 
As often as a war broke out he longed to join in it, 
and he always was forced to remain at home. At last 
he made it the sole object of his wishes, that the 
pacification of the Netherlands should be com- 
mitted to him : Alva was preferred to him. Thus 
this impetuous spirit, shut out on all sides from 
active exertion, and driven back upon itself, was 
thwarted and irritated to madness. Now would 
Carlos kill Alva, and escape by flight from his 
father ; now had he no rest day or night, till he 
cried out that he meditated a deed against a man 
he hated, for which he besought absolution before- 
hand, till he was frantic enough to give the theo- 
logians of Atocha grounds for surmising that his 
father was the hated foe whose life he threatened *. 
Did his father then leave him to pine away and die 
in prison ? Or is the story really true, that the 
coffin in which Carlos lay was opened, and his head 
found severed from his body ? Be it enough to 
say, that Philip lived on such deplorable terms 
with his son, that he must either fear every 
thing at his hand, or doom him to death without 
pity. 

This matter had no doubt some influence on the 
subsequent discipline practised by this monarch 
with his children. When he had his heir apparent, 
Philip, brought up for an unusual length of time, 
and with injurious severity, among women, it was 
thought that he bore Don Carlos in mindf. He 
took care not to give him a grandee for his tutor. 
He did not even suffer, as it is said, that his son 
and his faithful daughter, Isabella, should speak 
with each other unknown to himself. 

He lived, however, to see the natural and inevi- 
table result of all this. As his end drew nigh he 
saw his kingdom exhausted of men, and burdened 
with debts, his foes and his revolted subjects 
powerful, alert, and provided with means of at- 
tack ; but the successor, who might have remedied 
those evils, and resisted those enemies, he saw not. 
His son was wholly incapable. It is said that this 
conviction once quite overcame him. He bewailed 
it to his son-in-law, Albert of Austria, and to Isa- 
bella, whom he greatly loved : " To his grace in 
bestowing on him so great a realm, God had not 
been pleased to add the grace of granting him a 
successor capable of continuing to rule it. He 
commended the realm to them both." The old 

Stima poco ognuno, se ben b grande, parendoli a gran lungo 
che nessun li possa pareggiare. Suol dire : Chi debbe far 
elemosine, se non le danno i principi ? K splendidissimo in 
tutte le cose et massime nel beneficiar chi lo serve." Soriano 
(MS.) thus describes Carlos : " E 1 simile al padre di faccia, e 
perd dissimile de costumi ; perche e animoso, accorto, cru- 
dele, ambitioso, inimicissimo de buffoni, amicissimo de sol- 
dati." 

* L'histoire del'huissier, in Llorente, Hist. del'Inquisition, 
iii. 151. It has been sufficiently proved in recent times that 
Carlos perished through his irregularities in prison. (Note 
to the second edition.) 

t Khevenhiller's account of 1621. Annal. Ferdin. ix. 
1270. 



PHILIP III. 



35 



king said this with tears, he who had shed no tears 
at the death of his children*. 

3. Philip III. 

The Spaniards have a book relating to Philip 
III., which ascribes many virtues to that monarch. 
If I mistake not, human virtues are of two kinds : 
in the one case their active impulses are directed 
outwards, and are expansive in their nature ; in the 
other, these are turned inwards with a self-contract- 
ing force : and whilst the virtues of the former 
class belong more to the stronger minded, and 
those of the latter to the weaker, it is the due com- 
bination of both that constitutes the faultless man. 
Now just such a combination does the book we 
speak of ascribe to the king : it describes him as 
brave, open-handed, and sage, and at the same 
time clement, pious, and chaste. Why then was 
Philip II. alarmed at the prospect of being suc- 
ceeded by a son so well endowed I Why did he 
think of setting governors over him ? 

Poreno, the author of the book, does not leave 
us in doubt. For what is the bravery he extols in 
Philip ? It is that he controls himself, and refuses 
to take vengeance. In what consists his open- 
handedness ? He makes donations to churches, 
founds colleges, and sends money to the Persians, 
that they might keep the Turks employed, and 
hinder them from infesting the coasts of Spain. 
Lastly, wherein does his sagacity display itself? 
In the fact that he submits to be instructed, that 
he shapes his course according to the judgment of 
others f. And so vanish all his active virtues. 

We have seen how Charles V. was so constituted, 
that his nature could hardly attain to a free exer- 
cise of its powers ; but it did arrive at that stage 
of growth at last ; that monarch was indefatigable 
in the field and in the council. Again, we saw how 
one half of this active capacity remained for ever 
denied to Philip II.; how sedulously that sovereign 
avoided all energetic movements, all personal con- 
tact with others ; but in solitude and in his cabinet 
he too was unwearied in his labours. Philip III. 
could brace himself to neither of these courses. 
He was very far from taking delight in a stirring 
life in the field or in the fight ; but he also resigned 
to others the business of the cabinet. 

Don Philip III. was of a small, well-shaped 
person, with a small, round, agreeable, white and 
red face ; he had the family lips. He had been 
taught to display a certain air of dignity when he 
appeared in public ; but naturally he was alto- 
gether cheerful and unpretending in his appear- 
ance. He had passed his youth in weakness, obe- 
dience, and not very profitable occupations. An 
unhealthy nurse had communicated to him a ma- 
lady of which he never thoroughly got rid : it 
was not till his fourteenth year that he cut his 

* Rel. della vita del re di Spagna, MS. " Gli disse che 
egli ben sapeva il gran valore et le qualita dell' infanta, che 
erano tali che in essa et in suo marito haveva poste le sue 
speranze : gia che dio per li suoi peccati, ancorche gli ha- 
vesse fatto gratie di tanti regni et dominii, non gli haveva 
per reggerli et governarli dato figliuoli : perche il principe 
non era che un ombra di principe, non havendo talento per 
comandare, di maniera che dubitava che non dovesse essere 
occasione di molti gran danni alia sua casa." 

t Poreno, Dichos y hechos del Rey Don Felipe III. cap. 
ii. vii. xi. 



second teeth, so slowly did his constitution unfold. 
He was certainly not entirely destitute of the talent 
to comprehend ; nevertheless his tutor, Loaisa, 
with all his minute and pedantic rigour, did not 
carry him much further than grammar and a smat- 
tering of St. Thomas. Was it the trial befitting a 
prince's mettle, that they made him support theses 
and syllogisms in the Escurial ? Above all they 
instilled into him the strictest obedience to his 
father, and never was that duty more inviolably 
observed by a son. The charge has been gravely 
alleged against Loaisa that he educated the prince 
with a view to ruling him at a future time *. 

At any rate, the prince seemed from the first 
more fitted and more inclined to receive impulses 
from others than to impart them. When his 
father announced to him that he should now take 
part in the affairs of state, that he should return as 
a man to the chamber he had left more like a child, 
he said not a word, kissed his father's hand, and 
remained the same as ever. Even when Philip 
showed him the portraits of three young princesses, 
one of whom he might select for his bride, and 
repeatedly urged him to make his choice, there 
was no bringing him to a decision, " for his father's 
will was his taste." He left it, so to speak, to 
death to decide for himf. Two of the three prin- 
cesses died. 

After the death of his father, when he himself 
became king, he resigned all authority from the 
very first into the hands of the duke of Lerma, as 
we shall presently see. Other sovereigns have done 
something of the same kind, but only that they 
might be free to pursue their pleasures. He knew 
no pleasures to which he could wish to devote him- 
self. What he seemed to have most taste for was 
travelling, playing at ball, and throwing dice till a 
late hour of the night. But his fondness even for 
these amusements was not very decided. It was 
plain after all that he only played to pass away the 
time, not for any gratification such occupations 
afforded him J. 

Thus he appears in this world without taking 
part in it, without acquiring any active character, 
without suffering himself to be tempted to the in- 
dulgence of any passion. He blushes and casts 
down his eyes if a lady looks upon him with viva- 
city in the palace. He affirms, and we may really 
take his word for it, he looks upon a beautiful 
woman only from thankfulness to God for having 
made so perfect a creatui*e §. 

But no ! there is something in him that does at 

* Relatione della vita del re di Spagna et delli privati. 
" Pate tutta via una certa infirmita et la chiamano usogie (?) 
Don Francesco de Avila, marchese di Velada, fu quello a 
cui si raccomando et comise la custodia di questo principe : 
e Garzia de Loaisa, che morse arcivescovo di Toledo, fu 
maestro per insegnarli le scienze et virtu christiane et poli- 
tiche che bisognano a cosi gran discepolo. Questi hebbero 
per scopo, poiche il padre era vecchio, infermo et molto 
vicino alia morte, di allevare S. M. in maniera che'l potes- 
sero reggere et maneggiare come loro tornava commodo et 
quasi tiranneggiarlo. Questo scopo hebbe piu di ogn' altro il 
Loaisa." 

+ Khevenhiller, Annales Ferdinandei, an. 1598. 

X Relat. della vita, etc. " Dei gusti non si h potuto scoprir 
piu che il correre la posta, far viaggi, giocare a pillotta et a 

caccia, et in questa materia tirare piu che alii uccelli 

Gioca ancora et molto bene a dadi buona parte della notte, et 
questo piu per spassarsi che per dilettarsi del gioco." 

§ Poreno, Dichos y hechos de Felipe III. c. iv. p. 299. 
D 2 



36 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



times incite him to action. There lives within him, 
interwoven with the very core of his existence, a 
spirit of rigorous Catholic devotion, whether inhe- 
rited from his father or implanted in him hy edu- 
cation. How often meeting with the procession of 
the host does he accompany it even beneath the 
poorest roof ! It is with great unwillingness he re- 
turns from Valladolid, whither the court had been 
transferred, to Madrid; but he does so because his 
confessor tells him it is for God's service. He 
kneels down before a poor friar to receive his bless- 
ing, and thinks his indisposition relieved when he 
has obtained it. After the death of his wife there 
needs a heavenly voice to comfort him, speaking in 
very choice Castilian; yet he does not conceive the 
least suspicion*. 

This turn of thought sometimes impels him to 
active exertion. It seems to him an important duty 
to bring all men to acknowledge " the mystery of 
the immaculate conception of the angel queen, the 
most holy Mary." For this he consults with his 
learned men, for this he makes his bishops and 
archbishops write to Rome, and is ready even to 
make a pilgrimage thither on foot if necessary ; 
nor can his children afford him greater delight 
than by repeating, " Holy Mary conceived without 
sin." — " So, my children," he answers, " do I also 
believe f." 

But all the results of his religious promptings 
were not equally inoffensive. We see him making 
warlike preparations in the year 1609. The veteran 
Spanish troops are summoned from Spain. The 
galleys of Naples and Sicily, of Castile, of Portugal 
and Catalonia, put to sea, and the names of Doria 
and Santa Cruz, are heard again upon the waters. 
The king makes a vow to St. James, and to his 
wife, the Blessed Virgin, to obtain success in the 
proposed attempt. And for what was all this done ? 
What was the enemy to be encountered I The cam- 
paign was against a people that raised its corn and 
its sugar for the kingdom, against the poor Moris- 
coes of Valentia, who had long been baptized and 
disarmed. The crime imputed to them was cer- 
tainly not very clear; their grand fault was that 
they were not yet thoroughly Catholic. And, be- 
hold, an image of the Virgin has wept ; whole 
clouds of steaming sweat have oozed from another; 
the bell of Velilla has struck : now is the king 
fully determined; he will not hear one word of re- 
monstrance. And now when all has been accom- 
plished, when the streets of Valentia have been 
strewed with corpses, when so many Moors have 
perished by sea under the cruel treatment of their 
robberlike captors, and scarcely a third part of them 
have been landed in Africa ; then goes the queen 
and lays the foundation-stone of the church she 
had vowed, and the king undertakes his pilgrimage 
to St. Jago ; whilst the Spaniards reckon up 3700 
battles fought within the last 800 years between 
them and these Moors, now finally expelled; and 
they appoint a solemn holyday for an everlasting 
memorial of this enterprise %. 

If religious opinions were the sole causes that 

* Davila, Vida y hechos de Felipe III., p. 81 et seqq. 

t Poreno, cxii. "De su devocion," p. 330. 

% Geddes, The History of the Expulsion of the Moris- 
coes out of Spain, in Miscellaneous Tracts, i., particularly 
p. 106. Our information is taken from Poreno, pp. 282. 291, 
and Davila, an. 1610, authors not made use of by Geddes. 



could prompt Philip III. to action, so were they 
also the only source of his uneasiness. Before we 
can fully understand the how and the wherefore of 
this matter, we must take more minute note of the 
administration of his favourites. Here it is enough 
to state that the thought smote him at last, he had 
done sinfully in conceding so much power to those 
favourites; and that no consolatory arguments were 
strong enough to assure him of that blessedness in 
another world, for which he had lived a life of 
such purity, chastity, and devotion to the church; 
so that he departed in a kind of despair *. 



Conclusion. 

These are the three sovereigns whose admini- 
stration we propose considering further. But first 
it is well worth our noting how like each other, and 
yet how different they were. 

The Spanish line of the house of Habsburg is 
remarkable for having continued itself by marriages 
exclusively within its own family. 

The wife of Charles V. was his own niece by 
blood; that wife of Philip II. who bore him his heir, 
was of the house of Austria, and so likewise was 
the queen of Philip III. Philip IV. married his 
own niece, and from the marriage sprang Charles 
II., the last scion of the house of Habsburg in 
Spain. 

From this may have arisen the fact, that in no 
other race have the children so much resembled 
their parents in form and features as in this. There 
is a curious substantiation of this fact in our Rela- 
tions Leonardo Moro pourtrays king Philip IV. 
in the very words employed by Soriano to describe 
Philip II. ; whether it was that this was an acci- 
dental coincidence, or that Moro saw the descrip- 
tion of the grandfather to be quite applicable to the 
grandson. 

Now where education, circumstances, and habits 
of life are the same, it is not at all unlikely that 
the physiognomy of the soul should be as hereditary 
as that of the body, a fact of which we daily see 
thousands of instances ; maxims and thoughts may 
pass consciously or unconsciously from father to 
son ; but is the force, the indwelling energy that 
alone constitutes the man of action, that gives him 
his value and his influence on society, is this too 
hereditary ? 

We know the prophetic words spoken of the 
Merovingian race by the bride of Childerick, on 
her nuptial night, and how they proved but too 
true. The race of Pepin long brought forth men 
and heroes, and Charlemagne was surrounded by 
valorous sons. The nation had sworn never to de- 
part from them. But from that time forth there 
was a continual descent, generation after genera- 
tion, down to weaklings, who remained all their 
lives in a state of non-age. Three nations were 
constrained to abjure them in spite of the oath. 
The Spanish line of the house of Habsburg may be 
compared with the sons of Pepin and the Mero- 
vingians. 

We are here verging on the mysteries of life, 
where it is fed by hidden and sometimes sealed 
fountains. This only we may venture to assert, 
that the man is not fashioned by nature alone. 

* Khevenhiller, an. 1621, p. 1250. 



THE COURT AND STATE OF CHARLES V. 



37 



CHAPTER II. 

Of the Court and the Ministers. 

If we have duly comprehended the character 
and habits of the monarchs before us, we shall 
understand as a matter of course what was the 
position of their ministers. We shall conclude that 
they could not have possessed any extraordinary 
importance under Charles V. ; that the personal 
qualities of Philip II. afforded them scope for free 
action upon all beneath them, and for a considera- 
ble re- action upon himself ; and that lastly, under 
Philip III. they must have been omnipotent. 

But it is not enough to know this. It is perhaps 
necessary to be acquainted with the intimates, the 
immediate organs of the monarchs of independent 
character ; but it is much more important to be- 
come acquainted with those on whom much, with 
those on whom everything, depended. Contempo- 
raries too felt this. The Relationi belonging to the 
times of Chai'les V. have reference chiefly to the 
general form of his court and state ; those per- 
taining to Philip II. carry us further into the 
heart of the subject ; and when we come to the 
times of Philip III. we find the description of the 
ministries the chief theme of the Relationi. It is 
just the same with the printed works. The infor- 
mation they give us respecting Charles V. is not 
very minute ; they are much more so respecting 
Philip II., but still there is something suppressed; 
but as to Philip III., they make no concealment. 
The importance of a thing augments the attention 
with which it is regarded. We, too, shall both 
voluntarily and of necessity adhere to the same 
course of proceeding ; voluntarily, in consideration 
of the nature of our subject, and of necessity, by 
reason of the character of our materials. 

1. The Court and State of Charles V. 

The court of Charles V., it must be owned, was 
of much importance at the time when he had not 
yet overcome the obstacles to his own freedom of 
action inherent in himself. It was a thoroughly 
Burgundian court, constituted exactly after the 
fashion of those of Philip the Good and Charles 
the Bold ; it consisted of gentlemen *. The imme- 
diate servants of the prince were persons of princely 
blood +: they were under the directions of a lord 
high chamberlain, who slept in the chamber of the 
prince, by whom a table was daily provided for 
them. The household was full of inferior persons 
of gentle blood %. Some of these served as armed 
retainers ; others waited at table, and served bread 
and wine ; several of them had been brought up 

* Olivier de la Marche, Memoires, App. Collect. Univers. 
torn. ix. 

t Cavallo : " Ha S. M. 36 gentilhuomini della camera sua, 
alii quali non si da piu che un scudo il giorno di provisione, 
et questi per il piu sono principi et di parentado di principi." 
[His majesty has 36 gentlemen of his chamber, who receive 
each only a scudo a day, and these are for the most part 
princes and of princely extraction.] 

% Ibid. "Li gentilhuomini della casa sono intorno a 
cento, tenuti a servire con armi et cavalli in ogn'un occa- 
sione, come alio stato loro ci conviene : delli quali secondo 
i meriti suoi si eleggono quelli che si chiamano della bocca 
et sono intorno a 50 : oltre al servitio d'armi et cavalli ser- 
vono al mangiar dell' imperatore." 



in the household. All these were under a grand 
steward of the household, a mayor-domo-mayor, or 
patron of the court as they called him. Such were 
the provisions for the service of the household. 
But when the monarch left the palace, the func- 
tions of the master of the horse came into play ; 
for not only was the whole retinue of heralds and 
trumpeters, of saddlers and tent-keepers, under 
his control, but his services were particularly re- 
quired when the monarch set out for a tourna- 
ment, or armed for battle. On these occasions he 
dressed the monarch in his armour, and received 
him on his return ; and he was in his immediate 
proximity in the busiest moments *. With these 
three officers was associated the father confessor f . 
He had the control of the two preachers, the chap- 
lains, and those forty musicians who constituted 
the most perfect choir in the world, and upheld 
the fame of the Netherlands as the native place of 
music. The confessor could moreover boast that 
the sovereign was under his influence in his most 
solemn and perhaps his most important moments. 

We see what were the four chief personages of 
the court, and it is not to be denied that at first 
they had great influence on the administration of 
the state. This has always been so in Germanic 
nations. There is sometimes reason to doubt which 
was the original of the two, power and princely 
dignity, or service about the royal person. The 
high offices of the German electors certainly admit 
of no doubts of the kind ; but in the case of the 
palatines of the West Goth kings, which was the 
earlier of the two, their functions in the palace, or 
their rank in the kingdom ? Was the power of a 
major domus derived from his position about the 
Frankish kings, or was that position conferred on 
one already possessed of power ? Be this as it 
may, Chievres, lord high chamberlain to Charles 
V., established an almost unlimited authority over 
the kingdom, upon the almost constant proximity 
in which he stood to the sovereign. Maingoal de 
Lanoi, the same monarch's master of the horse, a 
man of no remarkable intrinsic ability, but who had 
won his sovereign's favour X, found means thereby 
to make his own importance acknowledged in the 
weightiest affairs of Europe. It caused the Spanish 
grandees no little mortification, on the arrival of 
Charles in the country, to find the first places oc- 
cupied by Flemings, and themselves excluded 
from every station immediately about the king's 
person. This very circumstance contributed to 
excite the comunidades to their insurrection. 

Now, if the chief personages of the court pos- 
sessed such decisive influence, the younger mem- 
bers also might look forward to various stations of 
weight and dignity. No few young men of noble 
blood, most of them younger sons of great houses, 
served the court as chaplains, as private priests, 
and chanted vespers in their surplices. They per- 
formed these services, because they were destined 
for clexucal honours, and the disposal of these was 

* Cavallo : "II grand scudiero, che e cavaliere del ordine 
del tosone, e tenuto armare di sua mano l'imperatore." 

I Ibid. " Vi e l'elemosiniero : . . . . vi sono cantori, al 
numero forse di quaranta, la piu compita et eccellente ca- 
pella della christianita, eletti da tutti i paesi bassi, che sono 
hoggidl il fonte della musica : — sono poi inferiori ministri : 
— vi sono due predicatori, un Francese, Faltro Spagnuolo : 
et tutti questi sono sotto il confessore." 

J Petrus Martyr, ep. 758. Varchi, Stor. Fiorent. ii. p. 10. 



33 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



in the hands of the court. At the end of from six 
to ten years, they obtained a bishopric or an abbey*. 
If a young Croi, on the arrival of Charles in Spain, 
obtained the first prelacy in the kingdom, the arch- 
bishopric of Toledo, he was undoubtedly indebted 
for this to his connexion with the court. Was it 
likely it should have been otherwise with secular 
appointments ? Was it likely the sovereign should 
not bethink him, in the first place, of those he had 
known from their youth upward ? The court be- 
came a nursery for the state. Obviously it was to 
be regarded as the centre of the whole system of 
public life. It is plain how dangerous it were, if a 
sovereign should become too dependent on its 
members. 

We cannot contemplate this court, or the others 
of those times, without making one general obser- 
vation. If we reflect how influential was the edu- 
cation of the nobility, how important in its effects 
on all the rest of society must have been the 
change in its notions of what was noble, respect- 
able, and desirable, it will not appear superfluous 
to inquire, how it was that the knight passed into 
the cavalier. The qualities that make the knight 
are valour guided by lofty aims, inviolable fidelity 
to the suzerain to whom he has pledged his alle- 
giance, and disinterested devotion as regards the 
fair sex. The cavalier's characteristics are supe- 
rior personal endowments and accomplishments, 
which he employs according to the received notions 
of honour ; as regards his sovereign, unconditional 
obedience, and the complaisance of a courtier; as 
regards women, address in winning their favour. 
The broad-sword is the weapon of the former, the 
small sword that of the latter. It seems to me 
that courts, such as was the Burgundian court 
under Charles V., and such as it further became 
under his successors, contributed not a little to 
bring about this change. There were always about 
forty pages brought up in them. In what were they 
instructed ? In the whole course of modern train- 
ing for young men of rank. Dancing and vaulting, 
riding and fighting ; not much science or litera- 
ture f. Now if the hope of obtaining gracious 
marks of his favour from the sovereign, prompted 
to submissive deference towards him ; and if the 
cavalier's daily occupations forced him to attain 
peculiar proficiency in the before-mentioned exer- 
cises, he soon acquired, moreover, a certain gal- 
lantry, particularly when the consort of the sove- 
reign likewise kept her court. That tone of feeling, 
which has been set before us by Calderon, unfolded 
itself among the Spaniards, to whose minds the 
Catholicism of then,' monarchy gave a peculiar kind 
of elevation. 

When Charles began to act for himself, he com- 
pletely dissolved the connexion of the court with 
public affairs. Nassau and Buren, who played im- 

* Cavallo. " Sono de secondogeniti de suoi principi, per- 
sonaggi di gran qualita de suoi stati, H quali, havendo ser- 
vito sei, dieci o talhor piu anni, sono rimunerati con pen- 
sion!, abbatie, vescovati, si come pare a S. M." 

t Cavallo : " Ha S. M. da 20 in 40 paggi, figliuoli di conti 
et signori suoi vasalli et anco alcuui d'altra natione, per il 
vivere de quali S. M. paga un sesto di scudo (they had ac- 
cording to the Ordine della casa a governatore, who provided 
for them, and received five scudi a month for each) : di piu 
li veste ogn'anno, ma non molto sontuosamente : gli tiene 
maestri che gl'insegnano bellare et di giuoco di spada, caval- 
care, volteggiare a cavallo et un poco di lettere." 



portant parts there in the year 1630, and who stood 
particularly high in the emperor's favour *, had no 
share in the administration of the state. After 
Nassau's death, the post of lord high chamberlain 
was abolished f, and we do not find that the so 
called somiglier du corps, who took the duties of 
the suppressed office upon him, was ever of much 
importance. Alva was grand steward of the house- 
hold, but he never had any decided influence under 
Charles ; and if he did possess some weight %, he 
owed this to other things than his position at court. 
We hear no more of the power of the grand-master 
of the horse after Lanoy. The father confessor 
alone, whose office, as we have seen, constituted an 
important feature of the court establishment, was 
of course not to be dispensed with by Charles. 
There were so many clerical affairs to be discussed, 
so many that related to the councils, to Turks and 
Moors, to new Christians and protestants, besides 
many others, in which he needed the aid of a 
ghostly counsellor. On all these the father confes- 
sor was consulted. It was perceived, however, 
that he had need to put forward his opinions with 
all modesty, and to back them by cogent argu- 
ments, if he would have them attended to §. It is 
only over weak natures that confessors have ob- 
tained a paramount control. It is no bad proof of 
the independence with which Charles bore him, 
that we hear nothing of factions at his court, nothing 
even of remarkable visitations of disfavour. 

Thus gradually vanishes the influence at first 
exercised by this court ; institutions of state arise, 
which are independent of the court. 

But as the provinces of the Spanish realm had 
distinct administrations, it became a question of 
commanding interest, how far Charles would have 
the power to give these a certain unity. The most 
peculiar institution we find at his court is a supreme 
administrative council, selected from the several 
councils of all the provinces. " His majesty," says 
Cavallo, who is our sole informant on this subject, 
" has a council for the government of his states 
collectively, consisting of several regents (the supe- 
rior members of the colleges are so called), one 
from Sicily, one from Naples, one from Milan, one 
from Burgundy, one from the Netherlands, one 
from Aragon, and one from Castile ; and in addi- 
tion to these, there are two or three doctors. These 
councillors deliberate on all important matters that 
concern the emperor or the empire at large ; each 
member takes care to make himself acquainted 
with the concerns of his own province, and reports 
thereon. The younger Granvella, bishop of Arras, 
is president of this council ||." If the utility of 

* Relat. di Contarini : " Amatissimi da Cesare." 

t Ordine della casa: Mods* di Prata is here styled 
secondo ciamberlano, Monsr di Rye somiglier. 

X Cavallo: "E vero che per ceremonia piu che per altro 
ha ammesso il duca d'Alva." 

§ Ibid. " Questo confessore entra in tutti li consigli dove 
si trattano cose pertinente alia conscienza, et per questo 
viene ammesso dove si parla di guerra et anco si parla di 
giustitia, et particolarmente quando si consultano le deno- 
mination! de beneficii, .... d'usure et quasi di tutte le 
cose che faccia l'imperatore. Bisogna che lui con destrezza 
non manchi di dire l'opinion sua fondatamente et con buona 
ragione et veda di diria con tanta modestia che sia accettata 
la verita : altrimenti fa poco frutto et diminuisce l'autorita 
sua infinitamente." 

|| Cavallo : " Li quali tutti insieme massime nelle cose d'im- 



L 



THE FIRST MINISTRY OF PHILIP II. 39 



such a council would be obvious even in a monarchy 
possessed of an organic unity, how much more 
must this have been the case in an empire made 
up of co-ordinate, and almost independent king- 
doms. Its members might be looked on as at once 
organs of the executive, and as representatives of 
their native states. If, on the one hand, they were 
bound to uphold the several local interests against 
that of the general body, on the other hand, they 
could not be blind to the necessity for combination; 
they could not obstinately stand out against this ; 
and the provinces must have found it easier to obey 
what was enjoined by a council, in which they saw 
one of their own people sitting as a member *, than 
what was imposed on them by absolute authority, 
without appeal. In such a council, too, there was 
a greater facility for duly balancing the mutual 
relations of the provinces. 

This council, however, was not considered singly 
sufficient. There was, certainly, need of another, 
of more strict unity, for the control of the compli- 
cated monied affairs of the empire. The emperor 
had a council of finance, which he consulted on the 
state of his income and expenditure, the loans he 
proposed to make, and the interest he was willing 
to grant f. The respective characteristics of these 
two councils I imagine to have been, that the one 
demanded what the other unwillingly granted. 

There was over both these, in the latter part of 
the reign of Charles, a council of state, which, how- 
ever, was of but little importance. Alva and the 
father confessor were members of it. Cavallo 
asserts, that this council had but little to do. 

The emperor was fond of taking counsel of a 
single individual ; Gattinara and the elder Gran- 
vella successively enjoyed his confidence. Gatti- 
nara was an Italian, from the foot of the Alps, who 
acquired his experience in the administration of 
Upper Burgundy. We have letters of his that 
bespeak a certain boldness even to the sovereign's 
face, and in contradiction to him, and the most 
lively sense of honour. " I would live in accord- 
ance with the laws of honour," he says, " though 
no one saw me, though I lived in the heart of a 
forest." These letters are remarkable for the 
happy art with which they always hit the very 
central point of policy J. We know, however, that 
their author's influence was not paramount. Though 
a man of penetration, and firmly rooted in the 
favour of Charles, still he could not enforce his 
views on important occasions. It has already been 
mentioned how close and constant was the commu- 
nity of ideas between Granvella and his master. 
The emperor sent him every report, and all the 
negotiations carried on with foreign ambassadors ; 

portanza consultano et giudicano ogni cosa particolare perti- 
nente all'imperatore o alii statl, et separamente ogn'uno di 
loro della sua propria provincia s'instruisce et riferisce a gli 
altri, sollecitando l'espeditione : capo de quali tutti e Mon- 
signor d' Arras : et questi harmo di provisione dall' impera- 
tore da mille scudi sino in 1500 l'anno." 

* Respecting the Neapolitan member, see Giannone, Storia 
di Napoli, xxx. c. 2. The Cortes of Madrid, 1552, Petic. i. 
say that two members of the council of Castile must always 
accompany the imperial court. 

t Cavallo : " Sono vi poi a parte di tesoriere consultori, 
che sono ragionati (perhaps ragionatori), e con il consiglio 
d'alcuni di questi S. M. piglia a cambio." 

t His letters to Margaret, governess of the Netherlands, 
in the Lettres de Louys XII. vol. iv. 



and Granvella used, every evening, to send the 
emperor a note containing his notions respecting 
the business for the following day. When an oral 
consultation was held between the two, the con- 
fessor was indeed admitted to it, but he had no part 
in the decision *. Now, neither do we find it said 
of Granvella that he led Charles ; it is only said 
that he agreed with his master. 

The execution of those matters which were thus 
determined between the king and his confidential 
advisers, was further discussed with the two coun- 
cils. The chanceries, one of which had charge of 
matters pertaining to the Germanic empire, another, 
of those of the Italian states independent of that 
empire, and third, of those of Spain, made out the 
orders which were then transmitted to the several 
provincial administrations. 

We see how much the unity of the whole body 
politic was centred in the person of the emperor. 
No doubt he encountered multiplied limitations in 
the constitutions of his dominions, the policy of his 
neighbours, and the frequently inauspicious turn of 
affairs ; still we find him, to the very close of his 
life, always firm and independent of extraneous 
influence in the exercise of supreme authority. 

2. The first Ministry of Philip II. 

We have seen that the calm and reserved nature 
of Charles had pliancy enough to accommodate 
itself to various nations. We admit that his reign 
was conspicuous for the personal independence he 
maintained, and for the equal regard he extended 
to all his dominions. 

Did his son succeed him as well in his system of 
government as in his rights ? 

Again and again in the history of the house of 
Habsburg, we find it endeavouring to coerce one 
nation by means of another, and to rule such as 
were ill-disposed to it by foreign aid. Rudolf I. 
subjugated the Austrians with the help of Swa- 
bians, many a man of whom marched with him on 
foot, and ere long acquired an income of 10,000 
marks, and against whose permanent dominion 
Austria vainly struggled +. To make himself 
master of the Netherlands, Maximilian made use of 
the resources of Austria, of those troops Gaudenz 
von Ems brought him from the Tyrolese wars, and 
of German auxiliaries. Again, Philip I. entered 
Spain with Flemish and German troops ; and it 
was to Flemings that Charles at first entrusted the 
government of Spain. 

But Charles corrected himself, and in his later 
years we find Spaniards, Flemings, and Italians 
treated by him with equal favour. 

But a peculiar re-action exhibited itself under 
Philip II. As the Spaniards acquired the habit of 
regarding themselves, though not altogether justly, 
as the victors in the Italian and German wars, and 
the founders of the monarchy, as their pride arro- 
gated to themselves the first rank among the na- 
tions constituting the same, and that so success- 

* Cavallo : " Si serve l'imperatore del consiglio suolo di 
Monsignor Granvella. La cosa si risolve tutta fra l'impera- 
tore et Monsignor Granvella. Rare volte, anzi dico rarissime, 
sono discrepanti fra loro d'opinione o conclusioni, — non solo 
nelli negotii di stato, ma in qual altra cosa possa occorrere a 
lui, come d'andare, stare, far venire, licentiare et risolvere 
tutte le cose." 

t Albertus Argentinensis, ap. Urstis, ii. p. 103. 



40 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



fully, that the two sons of Charles, the legitimate 
Philip, and the illegitimate Don John, both insisted 
on being nothing but genuine Spaniards*, so they 
gradually made pretensions to a predominant share 
in the general government. Philip admitted their 
claims. The first deviation from Charles's system 
was that Philip regarded Castile as the head of the 
empire. Next, the council composed of natives of 
the several provinces disappeared. After Philip 
took up his residence permanently in Spain, and 
indeed, in consequence of that circumstance, he 
adopted a system of administration by which 
the other territories were treated as subordinate 
provinces of Castile. There had for some time 
existed distinct councils for judicial affairs, for 
the inquisition, the knightly orders, and the Indies, 
and now certain new ones were added to these, 
namely for Aragon, for Italy, and for the Ne- 
therlands; and though the latter were essentially 
quite different from the former, they seemed so 
only in incidentals f. All these councils were in 
immediate contact with the king. True, he never 
was present at their sittings ; but he made it a 
practice, at least in the earlier part of his reign, to 
have their resolutions brought forward in a con- 
sulta J. It continued, certainly, to be the custom 
for some native representatives to sit in these com- 
mittees, but the former sittings and consultations 
in general assembly fell into disuse. 

The care of the general body of the realm lay 
principally with the privy council. May this have 
consisted of members selected from the various 
territories of the Spanish empire 1 

The manner in which Philip II.'s privy council of 
state was constituted, is highly deserving of notice. 
While he was yet prlnclpe he had a court assigned 
him, constituted in the Burgundian fashion, and 
made up almost wholly of Castilians. The duke of 
Alva was grand steward of the household ; Don 
Antonio de Toledo, of the same family as Alva, was 
master of the horse ; Figueroa, count of Feria, 
likewise nearly related to Alva, commanded the 
Spanish body-guards. Among the chamberlains 
(for the office of lord high chamberlain, abolished 
by the father, was not continued in the household of 
the son) we remark especially Don Ruy Gomez de 
Silva ; he was a scion of the Portuguese branch of 
a family extensively ramified in Spain and Por- 
tugal, and he became conspicuous for the decided 
favour in which he stood with Philip. These were 
the persons essentially constituting the court of the 
principe§. How great must our surprise be to 

* Lippomano on Don John: "in somma vuole essere 
tenuto Spagnuolo in tutte le cose." 

t Sommario dell' ordine che se tiene alia corte di Spagna 
circa il governo delli stati del re catolico, MS., thus enume- 
rates the eleven councils: "II consiglio delle Indie — di 
Castilia, (i. e. the supreme court of judicature of Castile) — 
d'Aragona — d'inquisitione — di camera (apart of the supreme 
court before-mentioned) — dell' ordini — di guerra, (i. e. the 
privy council, with the addition of some persons acquainted 
with military affairs) — di hazienda — di giustitia — d'ltalia — 
et di stato " 

% Tiepolo : " Non si trova mai S. M. presente alle delibe- 
ration! nei consigli, ma deliberate chiama una delle tre con- 
suite, secondo che il negotio gli aspetta : Tuna e di Spagna, 
l'altra delle Indie et la terza d'ltalia, alia qual sempre si 
ritrova." 

§ Sandoval, Vida y hechos del Emperador Carlos V. 
ii. 756. 



see him after he had become king, though he had 
his father's system of business before him, though 
he was not so young as to give himself up to whom- 
soever chance happened to place near him, forming, 
nevertheless, his privy council out of these same 
persons, and committing to their guidance the 
affairs of the whole united empire. Alva, Toledo, 
Ruy Gomez, and Feria, were all members of this 
council. Two other Spaniards were associated with 
them, Manrique de Lara, the queen's mayor-domo- 
mayor, and the duke of Francavilla. On the other 
hand, neither the victories of Emanuel of Savoy, 
nor the ties of blood between the king and Ottavio 
Farnese, nor the old services of Ferrante Gon- 
zaga, nor the recent and distinguished services of 
Egmont, were potent enough to give them a place 
in the council. Even the younger Granvella, who 
had been engaged ever since his youth in the policy 
of the monarchy, was invited to the sittings only 
on occasions when his presence was indispensably 
necessary, but on all others he was really excluded 
from the general deliberations *. It was thought 
enough to give him a post in the Netherlands, an 
important one no doubt, but not commensurate with 
his former position. Whatever consideration was 
bestowed on the others, seemed only to be with a 
view to preventing them from giving themselves up 
to any foreign potentate, and to keeping them in 
some degree in good humour f . 

Such was the first shape assumed by Philip II.'s 
council of state, and whatever enlargements it 
received were made in the same spirit. We find 
admitted into it the presidents of the council proper 
of Castile, of the council of inquisition, of that of 
the orders, and of the old council ; we do not find 
in it a president of Aragon ; and if a president of 
Italy sat in it, it was that same Francavilla, who 
had been a member of it already, before the time 
of his presidency. 

Through these two changes, the suppression of 
the general administrative council, and the meta- 
morphosis of the privy council into a completely 
Castilian shape, Castile was decidedly exalted to 
be the head of the empire ; the greatest influence 
over the remaining territories was afforded to the 
Spaniards. " The king," says Soriano, " has no 
regard but for Spaniards ; with these he converses, 
with these he takes counsel, with these he rules J." 
What was the effect of this we shall have to con- 
sider by and by : the question at present is, what 
was the shape assumed by the supreme adminis- 
tration, and how far did Philip remain independent 
or dependent with regard to it ? In the beginning 
of his reign king Philip adopted the following 
course : after the first hours of morning he gave 
audience to foreign ambassadors; he then heard mass 

* Soriano : " Monsignor d'Aras, se bene e stato adoperato 
tan to dalP imperatore nelle cose grandi et se bene resti con 
quel suo grado col re, pero non va nel consiglio et non vien 
chiamato se non s'ha da trattar cosa che habbi difhcolta o 
che non si possa nascondere." 

t Soriano : " Piu per bisogno che s'havea di lui (Ferrante 
Gonzaga) che per volonta che havessero di favorirlo." 

J Soriano adds : " Contro il costume dell' imperatore fa 
poco conto d'ltaliani et di Fiamenghi et manco di tutt' i 
Tedeschi. Et se bene intratiene huomini principalissimi 
d'ogni natione delli suoi regni, pero si vede che non vole ad- 
mettere alcuno nelli consigli secreti." In another place : 
" I Spagnuoli come figliuoli primogeniti sono piu cari et piu 
favoriti. A questi si danno li premj, a questi li honori." 



THE FIRST MINISTRY OF PHILIP II. 



41 



in his chapel ; after this he dined publicly ; and 
after dinner he received the petitions, and heard 
the requests of his subjects. In all matters laid 
before him, he referred to his counsellors ; all 
statements were reduced to writing by a secretary, 
and sent to the functionaries to whose department 
they belonged*. Their decisions were communi- 
cated to the king in the consultas he appointed ; or, 
as was afterwards the exclusive practice, they were 
given in to him on a sheet of paper. The peti- 
tioners now received the king's final reply con- 
firmed by his signature. 

Now if the king, as Tiepolo assures us was still 
the case in 1567, made it a regular practice to 
ratify the decisions of the privy council except in 
matters concerning Flanders, and those of the other 
functionaries except in matters of graced, it is 
essential that we should know the conditions of 
these functionaries, and particularly the intrinsic 
constitution of the privy council, from which issued 
the most important decisions. 

Now it happened that the two leading personages 
in the privy council, Ruy Gomez de Silva, and the 
duke of Alva, set themselves in decided mutual 
opposition. 

Ruy Gomez had ingratiated himself with his lord 
and master by his personal address, and by the 
talent with which he played the discreet courtier. 
Modest in questioning, and concise in his replies, 
not much given to debating, seeking to know no 
more than his sovereign chose to imply, and keep- 
ing every thing secret, not exalting his house beyond 
a moderate degree of splendour, he perfectly fell in 
with Philip's ways. It was by an easy and unas- 
suming, a helpful and compliant alacrity in ser- 
vice, that he won his favour ; and he was very well 
aware that he must hold fast by these qualities. 
He was content to carry his point, even though the 
means were not altogether agreeable. It was his 
opinion, that if a man had a better insight into any 
matter than his sovereign, he should carefully avoid ( 
letting the latter ever become aware of this ; that 
it was not so much by direct advice as by covert 
hints a man should accomplish his ends ; that one 
should be the Msecenas of his Augustus, and then 
would he be held meritorious before God and man. 
Cabrera calls him a lucky pilot in the perilous gulf 
of the court ; but he was unquestionably more than 
this, he aimed at preserving more than himself J. 

A very different man was Alva, with nothing of 
these arts and these discreet considerations. His 
influence he owed to his distinguished merits as a 
subject of the monarchy, to his hair grown grey in 
the sendee of its kings, to his experience, his repu- 
tation in war, and his ever determined soul. He 
desired to maintain or to augment that influence, 
but by no personal suppleness. If he desired prac- 

* At first this was done by the Ajutanti della camera. 
Tiepolo : " Li memoriali visti da alcuni suoi ajutanti di 
camera sono inviati al secretario di quel consiglio che ha 
questo carico d'espedir questi tali memoriali. Onde conviene 
che quello che negotia, anda a quel consiglio a qual e ri- 
messo." 

t " Rare volte sono mosse le deliberationi da S. M. — rare 
volte si parte dal loro conseglio." 

% Cabrera, Don Felipe segundo, p. 184, 712, and else- 
where. Compare also Scipio di Castro, Avvertimenti respect- 
ing Sicily, p. 340 ; Molino's Report on Savoy ; and above all 
the letters of Antonio Perez, the intimate friend of Ruy 
Gomez, particularly Carta a un gran privado, i. p. 75. 



tical power, he wished likewise for its visible sem- 
blance. He evinced towards the throne the bitter- 
ness of wounded pride that feels it has an unlimited 
lord above it. It was not said for the first time 
in the days of Frederick the Great, that a monarch 
sucks the pomegranate and then flings away the 
empty rind. The saying was the Duke of Alva's. 
" But we must not let ourselves be sucked dry," he 
said, " we must not let ourselves be read through 
and through. Men fling aside a book they have 
read to the end *." They were talking once at the 
court of the possibility of conquering Portugal, 
and the good marquis de los Veles declared how 
much he desired it. Alva took a different view of 
the matter. u What asylum," said he, " would our 
children have left them, to fly to from a king ?" 
He bethought him that the marquis was no friend 
to him. He had the face to relate this incident 
himself to the king. And yet he conquered Por- 
tugal : and yet he wished to see the immunities of 
the Aragonese suppressed ; and yet he went to bring 
Flanders under the yoke f. For he had the aris- 
tocrat's inclination to help despotism, provided 
only he did not himself endure its pressure. 

Such were the rival leaders of the privy coun- 
cil. If they had conflicting interests and preten- 
sions, if their respective relations and friends stood 
aloof from each other, still it was principally by 
the antagonism of their own natures that they were 
alienated from each other. Their respective posi- 
tions with reference to the king, are not badly ex- 
pressed in the words Alva ventured to let fall in 
the royal antechamber, namely, that his rival " was 
not exactly qualified to give advice, but was a 
master in the art of humouring the one within 
there J." They implicated the privy council and 
the whole court in their strife ; there was scarce- 
ly anything on which the two factions thought 
alike. 

Did the king remain unaffected by this discord 1 
Had it not an essential influence on his system of 
government, nay, on his own opinions and deci- 
sions ? 

He did not remain unaffected by it. As in the 
collisions that took place between them, he sided 
now with the one, now with the other; as he com- 
mended first Ruy Gomez, and then Alva also to 
an adelantado to which they both lay claim §, so 
he allowed them both a certain influence; and we 
find him limiting for the sake of the one, what he 
had conceded for the sake of the other. Ruy 
Gomez succeeds in having a Mendoza appointed 
ambassador to Rome; Alva contrives that he shall 
only be an extraordinary ambassador. After this 
Ruy Gomez procures a resolution that the post of 
ordinary ambassador should be conferred on Var- 
gas; but Alva excites doubts as to whether Vargas 
was of sufficiently noble birth for so high a post; 
and the king joins in the doubt ||. Now if a stran- 
ger had any poiut to carry at this court he was 

* Alva's words were, " Reyes usan de hombres como de 
naranja, que la buscan por el zumo y en sacandosele la 
arrojan de la mano." Perez, Segundas Cartas, p. 136. 

t Relacione de Antonio Perez, p. 131. 

I " Gran maestro de lo di aqui dentro." Alva's words as 
quoted by Antonio Perez. Cart. i. 75. 

§ Lettera di Monsignore di Terracina, nunzio di Pio IV., 
MS. mentions this : " Come Sua Maesta e benigna e gratiosa 
e non puo denegare il suo lavore a chi ne richiede." 

|| Ibid. 



42 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



driven to despair, seeing on the one hand how ne- 
cessary it was to conciliate both leaders, since they 
both had influence with the king, and on the other 
hand how impossible it was to stand well with the 
one without losing the good will of the other. Peo- 
ple thanked God when they were in such a posi- 
tion, that though they had not either decidedly on 
their side, yet they had neither decidedly against 
them*. It was only a Roman ambassador who 
succeeded in gaining the good will of both ; for 
had not the one just as much reason as the other 
to covet the pope's favour ? Here their strife put 
on a new shape, and they vied in proving each his 
own devotedness. And after all, Monsignore di 
Terracina, papal nuncio in Madrid, was obliged to 
promise both the victory in the affair of the ade- 
lantado; assuring Alva, who only demanded justice, 
he should have an impartial tribunal, and giving 
Ruy Gomez, who wished to be favoured, reason to 
expect judges inclined to his interests. It is easy 
enough to see how matters stood. Almost every 
affair was made subject of dispute between the two 
party leaders; both possessed undeniable influence, 
both sought to exert it to the utmost, and on all 
occasions; the consequence was, that the greater 
the importance of any affair the less likely was it 
to be brought to any definite conclusion, and that 
the tardiness in all official proceedings, which had 
already been noticed under Charles, now reached 
an intolerable degree f. So far then was this con- 
flict of interests from being without influence upon 
the state. But would any one have imagined that 
it was not altogether unwelcome to the king? Yet 
such would almost appear to have been the case. 
Every occupation, Philip once said, has its rules, 
and so has that of a king as much as any other. 
Accordingly it was for good and substantial reasons 
he did not appear in the privy council. The pre- 
sence of the sovereign is a bar to the free utterance 
of opinion, and makes every man speak as if he 
stood in a pulpit. But leave the members to them- 
selves, then they fall into disputes, and when they 
are heated their opinions and their passions display 
themselves more in their true colours. Their mu- 
tual strife will afford the king the best advice, if he 
can only find a faithful reporter J. He thought he 
could in no way gather better counsel than from 
the conflict of opinions. It is said that in the 
affairs of Flanders he sometimes had a sitting held 
in which Ruy Gomez only, and another in which 
Alva alone of the two rivals was present, so that he 
might fully possess himself of their several views §. 

In fact this monarch did not keep himself wholly 
independent either of the one or the other ; never- 

* Soriano : " Chi vuole il favore del duca d'Alva, perde 
quello di Ruigomez : cosl per contrario quel che cerca quel 
di Ruigomez, non ha quel del duca: et puo ben ringratiar 
dio chi si governa in modo con l'uno et l'altro che non s'ac- 
quisti contrario a l'uno et l'altro." 

t Soriano, -where he speaks of the strife : " Donde e nato 
nasce e nascera ogni desordine di questa corte : perche con 
questi dispareri si ritarda l'espeditione di tutte le cose et pub- 
liche et private, con pena et disperatione di chi le tratta." 

% Cartas de Antonio Perez. 

§ Tiepolo: "Conoscendo che per gli odii che sono tra il 
duca d'Alva et Ruigomez, in cose di tanta importantia, 
quando havesse seguito senza altra consideratione li loro 
consigli, haveva potuto divenir in qualche discordine, pero a 
parte consigliava in questa mattina (materia no doubt) in 
absentia l'un dell' altro et poi deliberava quel che piu cre- 
deva dovesse esserli utile." 



theless he maintained a certain superiority over 
both. If I am not mistaken he had naturally a 
decided susceptibility for others' counsel, a decided 
need of it; but therewith so strong an inclination to 
be personally active, to carry out business with his 
own hand, and so lively a jealousy for his own su- 
preme consequence, that though he did not indeed 
escape the influence of others, but underwent it 
perhaps unconsciously *, still he well knew how to 
prevent its ever obtruding itself very manifestly. 
Nevertheless there can be no doubt that Ruy 
Gomez gradually acquired the upper hand, so ju- 
diciously did he comport himself towards his mas- 
ter, so much did he possess the art of bringing 
about his designs without letting them be perceiv- 
ed; so much was he aided by his office as somiglier 
du corps, which kept him always near the sovereign's 
person. In affairs of war indeed Alva always had 
a decisive voice; but Ruy Gomez gave the empire 
itself a pacific tendency; in doubtful cases he was 
always for peace. The finances, and the affairs of 
the home administration, were almost wholly in his 
hands f. 

While these two men thus strove with each 
other, whilst Alva saw himself ousted from the 
foremost place by a man of supple character, who 
was not particularly remarkable for his distinguish- 
ed services, and whilst he was probably for that 
reason filled with the bitterness we note in him, it 
came to pass that a third candidate for the royal 
favour rose to eminence between them both. 

A doctor stepped in between the prince and the 
duke. This was doctor Diego Spinosa, who had 
risen through the gradations of judicial offices to 
the dignity of president of Castile. After this, 
having now more frequent opportunity of approach- 
ing the king, he ingratiated himself with his ma- 
jesty in the highest degree by his dignified appear- 
ance, the originality of his character, and the lofty 
intellect of which he gave token J. He was inde- 
fatigable in his love of labour, even to jealousy of 
others. He managed almost alone the business of 
the council of Castile, and gave the other members 
as little as possible to do. But this was not yet 
enough for him. He furthermore took upon him 
the office of grand inquisitor ; he presided in the 
council of Italy ; he also took an active part in the 
privy council; and in all these occupations he was 
equally ardent and prompt. Couriers, who arrived 
in Madrid with the news of a vacancy which had 
just occurred in Granada, found him already in 
possession of the fact; they found the office about 
which they had been dispatched already disposed 
of through his intercession. When he rose at last 
to be cardinal, and the king consequently treated 
him as an equal, advancing to meet him before the 
door, uncovering to him, and offering him a chair, 
so great was the consequence he obtained in the 
eyes of the people that he was called the monarch 
of Castile. Many regarded him as a man designed 
by nature to reign. 

I know not whether Ruy Gomez was aiding in 

* Soriano: " L'imperatore si governava in tufte le cose 
per opinion sua : il re per quella d'altri." 
t Tiepolo. 

I Perez compares his favour to a flash of lightning : 
" Privo como relampago." Segundas Cartas, n. 48 a Fran- 
cisco Lercaro. For the rest see Cabrera, Felipe IT. p. 700 ; 
Strada, de Bello Belg, dec. i. lib. vi. p. 161, edit. Ratisb. 
1751, fol. 



DIGRESSION RESPECTING DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA. 43 



the promotion of Spinosa; but Cabrera asserts that 
Spinosa stood by Ruy against Alva, whom they 
both hated alike. They belonged therefore to one 
party. 

Such was for twelve years the state of things at 
the court of Spain ; two factions engaged in con- 
tinual secret war ; the king rather more inclined 
to the one, yet without at all sacrificing the other ; 
both actively participating in the administration. We 
notice them from the time of the king's accession. 
Soriano tells us, in the year 1558, how both parties 
exerted themselves for the honour and welfare of 
the king, but in different ways. In the year 1560, 
Monsignore di Terracina describes how these par- 
ties swayed the court more than ever * ; and in 
1567, Tiepolo says that no subject presented itself, 
on which Ruy Gomez and Alva were not at 
variance. 

But afterwards, we find one leader after another 
supplanted. Alva first. 

In the year 1567, the state of affairs in the 
Netherlands seemed to call imperatively for some 
attempt to set them at rest, either by mild means 
through the king's presence, or by force with an 
army. Ruy was for gentle measures, Alva for 
force. The king was for the latter course, and he 
committed the execution to Alva himself. He 
gave him an almost absolute authority, as the 
princes of that house more than once did by tried 
and approved commanders, such as Gonzalvo de 
Cordova and Pescara in former, and Spinola and 
Wallenstein in subsequent times +. He dismissed 
him with such authority, and it seemed a great 
mark of favour. For all that it was not prejudicial 
to Alva's opponents. They now enjoyed their in- 
fluence in public affairs, untroubled by the inter- 
ference of their detested rival ; they controlled the 
state from its centre. Meanwhile, Alva perpetrated 
those atrocities in the Netherlands, which have 
brought down on him the execration of posterity; 
which were not satisfactory to himself, for he might 
at the same period have won in warfare with the 
Turks a better fame, after which his catholic heart 
thirsted ; and which finally, as they failed at last 
of their purpose, did not advance him in his mas- 
ter's favour. 

Spinosa was the second who fell. It was easy 
to resist an open and decided opponent, whose steps 
could be discerned ; but it was hard to counteract 
the secret insinuations to which Philip's ear was 
always open. Spinosa, the very man who seemed 
to have least to fear from them, was the first to feel 
how dangerous they were. Was it, perchance, his 
multifarious activity itself that displeased the king, 
or the complaints made by the grandees of the 
pride and inaccessibility of the new cardinal, or 
other things which have not been revealed? It was 
Philip's wont to hearken long, and to hearken 
again, and long could he keep his thoughts con- 
cealed, till at last the measure of his wrath was 
full, and suddenly overflowed. Suffice it to say, as 
Spinosa was once addressing the king on a Flemish 

* "Ho cercato d'informarmi con diligenza degli umori di 
questa corte et inteso primeramente che regna piu che mai 
l'intrinseca discordia cominciata molti anni sono tra il duca 
d'Alva et il principe d'Eboli : onde non solo il consiglio di 
stato, ma tutta questa corte, e divisa in fattioni." 

t Tiepolo : " Si risolve S. M. mandarlo in Fiandra con ab- 
soluta podesta, cosl nel conceder gratia, distribuir gradi et 
honori," etc. 



affair, the latter broke out vehemently against him, 
and abruptly announced his disgrace. Strong and 
elastic as was the mind of Spinosa, it was not suf- 
ficiently so to endure this : he died that same year, 
1571 *. 

Had not the old favourite, Ruy Gomez, now rea- 
son likewise to fear. " Senor Antonio," he said to 
Perez, " believe me, I would gladly fly from this 
court, could I but do so He complained some- 
times of the king, saying that a favourite felt more 
sensibly a slight scratch of the skin, than another 
would a wound to the bone. He dreaded those 
secret influences, from which, however, there was 
no withdrawing the king. He could never rest in 
full assurance of the royal favour. Accordingly, 
he was always on his guard ; always striving to 
disarm his opponents by favours obtained for them, 
and at the same time to give them evidence of his 
power. And in fact, he was very adroit in these 
things. Unbending as was the character of Don 
Carlos, who hated him, and who felt himself af- 
fronted if people refused to communicate to him 
what had passed in private between them and the 
king, still he managed to subdue even him, and 
finally to gain him over to his interests J. By such 
dexterous caution, exerted without ceasing, he con- 
trived to preserve his influence without any essen- 
tial diminution till his death, on the 22nd of July, 
1572. 

But the party that had gathered round him was 
so well established, that even the death of their 
leader could not break them up. The princess of 
Eboli, the widow of Ruy Gomez, supported by the 
memory of her husband's services, and by powerful 
relations, maintained a great influence at court. 
The marquis de los Veles, now the queen's mayor- 
domo-mayor, a man of whom Philip said he was 
wholly his own, so thoroughly devoted did he ap- 
pear to the royal person, figured among the men 
as the head of this party. They saw their friend, 
Antonio Perez, making bold and rapid way, his 
influence being founded on the reports with which 
he furnished the king from the privy council, and 
not less on the entire devotedness he manifested to 
him in his efforts to court the royal favour §. The 
party, closely knit, held together for a considerable 
time. At last the events in the life of Don John 
of Austria decided their fortunes. We must give 
some account of him in this place. 

3. Digression respecting Don John of Austria. 

It may be supposed that Charles V. loved his 
natural son, Don John, the more, because he was 
the child of his old age, the offspring of an amour 
wrapped in the profoundest mystery. Neverthe- 
less, lie gave no heed to him, either during his life 
or in his will, but contented himself with recom- 
mending him to Philip. Was it from regard to 
the weal of the monarchy, as is supposed, or was it 
more probably from narrow-sighted love for the 
child, that he recommended his successor to have 

* Cabrera. 

t Cartas de Antonio Perez, i. 151. 

J Tiepolo : " Odiava (il principe Carlo) Don Ruigomez, se 
ben il era maggiordomo maggior : ma e tale l'astutia con che 
procede, con la quale (a more than Latin construction) as- 
tringe hora ad amarlo." 

§ See the Relaciones and Cartas of Antonio Perez passim, 
and Cabrera. 



44 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



the boy brought up only with a view to clerical 
honours * ? 

In this respect, however, Philip did not follow 
his injunctions, and probably he regarded it as not 
the worst act of his life, that he complied more with 
his brother's inclinations than his father seemed 
disposed to do. From his earliest years, John dis- 
played a sanguine, lively, and intelligent character, 
decidedly more adapted to arms than ghostly exer- 
cises ; for the rest, modest, amiable, and good. In 
all the unhappy circumstances in which Don Car- 
los, who was his junior only by one year, and who 
had been brought up with him, was involved with 
his father, John manifested a fidelity so unassail- 
able by force or persuasion f, that Philip resolved 
to employ him in war and statesmanship. The 
privy council failed not to perceive the unpleasant 
results that this resolution might have, and hesi- 
tated awhile before they acceded to it J. But did 
not the realm require a brave young leader, such 
as he promised to be, a leader of the blood 
royal % 

Accordingly, Don John was sent in the year 
1569, against the insurgent Moors of Grenada, ac- 
companied by men of experienced knowledge in 
war, and by a secretary, Juan de Soto, of the party 
of Gomez, in whom the most implicit confidence 
was reposed. The young man now evinced a cou- 
rage and a talent for war, that forthwith opened to 
him a grand career in life. The progress of the 
Turkish arms was still a common source of alarm 
to all Europe ; the conquest of Cyprus was beheld 
as a general calamity ; and as, moreover, there was 
no war elsewhere, the eyes of all Christendom were 
bent on the league which, after long delays, was at 
last formed by some western powers against the 
enemy in the East. At the head of that league 
stood Don John, as leader of the combined fleets. 
What may have been his feelings when he won 
such a victory as that of Lepanto, a victory so 
glorious, complete, and decisive, as had never be- 
fore been achieved by Christendom ; when, young 
as he was, he appeared in his own eyes, and in 
those of others, in the light of a hero and a cham- 
pion, a very hope of Christendom ! But a change 
took place in him at this moment. 

Don John was in the prime of youthful manhood. 
When he appeared among the ladies in the winter 
entertainments at Naples, whither he went after 
the victory; his figure of the middle size, and fairly 
proportioned ; his long light hair thrown back from 
his temples with a certain grace, after a fashion 
which his example brought in vogue § ; with the 

* Strada, de Bello Belgico, dec. i. lib. x. p. 259. Lippo- 
mano (Relatione di Napoli) calls John's mother " Madama 
di Plombeo," a Fleming, (the Blombergs deny the relation- 
ship) — " di notabile stirpe in Fiandria, la quale hora vive in 
Aversa con un marito, che le diede dapoi Carlo V. con X 
mila due. d'entrada." MS. 

t Original documents in Llorente, Histoire de l'lnquisi- 
tion. Lippomano : " Essendo hen giovanetto non volse 
acconsentire a gli trattati del principe Carlo : anzi con gran 
pericolo della sua vita gli scopri a S. M." 

I Perez regards, as a peculiarly important secret, the divi- 
sion in the royal councils respecting the destination of Don 
John, " y los fines de cada vanda dellos." Segundas Cartas, 
142. 

§ Lippomano : " E di bellissimo aspetto et mirabil gratia ; 
ha poca barba et mustacchi grandi : b di pel biondo et porta 
lunghi i capelli et volti in su, chi gli danno grande orna- 



most agreeable manners, and full of sprightliness 
and gaiety, it may easily be imagined whether he 
was a favourite with his fair friends. He was a capi- 
tal rider; no one surpassed him in tournaments and 
in the use of arms ; after dinner he might be seen 
playing at ball for five or six hours together, and 
not sparing himself, for in this too he would be the 
foremost. But this was not enough for him. He 
knew well how valuable a thing it is to appear 
fluent in discourse, courtly, able, and well informed. 
He comported himself very discreetly with foreign 
ambassadors ; after having transacted business in 
the morning with secretaries and councillors of 
state, he often retired to his studies in the after- 
noon *. He won so far the praise he coveted ; 
but his heart was not yet contented. His whole 
soul, unsatisfied by the honours daily paid him, 
and by all he had already achieved, panted after 
still greater renown. He talked of nothing but 
deeds of war and victory. He averred that he 
would fling himself out of the window if he saw any 
one who made more way than himself on the path 
of fame. His maxim was, " He who does not push 
forward goes back." 

How did it come to pass that he was no longer 
content to lend his arm to great enterprises, but 
that he wished — and this was the change that ma- 
nifested itself in him — to become independent, to 
have a dominion of his own, and to be a sovereign? 
Was this a necessary ingredient in that honour he 
sought in the eyes of Europe ? Or did he feel that 
Spanish policy was no native element for him, and 
that he must look for some power of his own ? Per- 
haps he was urged to this desire by the Spaniards 
themselves. Munificence was among the princely 
virtues he longed to make his own ; he gave away 
10,000 ducats on a pilgrimage to Loretto. His 
brother's privy council however thought him suffi- 
ciently recompensed by a grant of 40,000 ducats 
yearly. Moreover he was the son of an emperor. 
He often complained that his father had not en- 
abled him to maintain any independent existence, 
and yet had recognized him +. 

Such an independence he thought of working out 
for himself, and his grand aim was to win it in a 
Turkish war. The liga first of all gave him hopes, 
and he expected to render the Venetians such ser- 
vices that they would bestow on him an independ- 
ent state. But the liga broke up before his 
eyes +. 

The privy council of Spain itself now set a pros- 
pect before him, by commissioning him to conquer 
Tunis. Don John accepted the task with delight. 
Juan de Soto often spoke of the flourishing empire 
of Carthage, which had taken its rise in that very 
gulf of Tunis. The Lilybsean harbour was reno- 

mento, et veste sontuosamente et con tal attillatezza, in 
modo che e un stupore a vederlo. E poi agile et disposto 
compitamente, riuscendo senza paragone negli esercitii del 
corpo." 

* Lippomano : " Molte volte sta fin a sera solo nello studio 
scrivendo di sua mano." 

t Ibid. "Piu voJte ha havuto a dire con dolore, che 
havendolo publicato per figliuolo in vita doveva anco 
darli il modo da vivere in quella maniera che deve un 
figliuolo di cosi grande imperatore, senza rimetterlo ad 
altri." 

X Ibid. " Hebbe pensiero che questa republica gli fusse 
per dar qualche stato nel Levante ; ma con la rottura della 
lega cesso per all' hora questo disegno." 



DIGRESSION RESPECTING DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA. 



45 



rated and called the harbour of Austria *. On the 
same ground on which Charles V. had won his 
fairest victory, Don John was likewise victor; he 
took Tunis by storm, and Biserta surrendered to 
him. His hopes now rose higher; he requested 
his brother, through the pope, to nominate him 
king of Tunis. An unexpected, an appalling re- 
quest for the privy council of Spain ! They had 
thought to employ the prince's talents for the ag- 
grandisement of the Spanish empire, and now it 
appeared he thought of becoming independent. It 
had wisely determined that Tunis should be demo- 
lished, and the country defended only by the for- 
tress of Goletta: how totally different would be the 
case if Tunis were erected into a kingdom. Phi- 
lip thanked the pope for the good will he manifest- 
ed towards his brother, but he rejected the re- 
quest f. He went further. He persuaded himself 
that none but Juan de Soto was the deviser of such 
bold schemes ; to remove him from his brother he 
gave him another place, and sent Escovedo in his 
stead. Don John was now so discontented that he 
deemed it a disgrace to be already twenty-nine 
years of age, and not yet to have Avon any terri- 
tory of his own. He would by no means let 
Soto quit him ; we find him employing both secre- 
' taries, and very soon Escovedo was filled with 
extraordinary projects more than Soto had ever 
been. 

Now what do they purpose doing ? Would they 
provoke a war, in order to secure an opportunity 
they could not otherwise have? Don John expressed 
himself very peculiarly on this point. " When the 
coniite says, Ave Maria, the sailors respond, Be she 
welcome: so will I do too, and wait my opportu- 
nity, not seek it J." Or since internal troubles 
might well afford him a chance of possessing him- 
self of Genoa, would he take advantage of this, as 
was commonly talked of and desired by his whole 
court ? " God forbid," he said, " that I should ever 
be instrumental in stirring up war among Chris- 
tians. My father often had Genoa in his power, 
yet would not subjugate it; my brother follows his 
example, and so will I." All his schemes were 
directed against the Turks. He devised a new and 
well contrived plan for this war, which continued 
uninterruptedly, and in which Tunis had just been 
lost again. The system of the Spanish monarchy 
against the Turks was altogether defensive; it cost 
from four to six millions a year, and yet the de- 
fence was in no place strong enough to withstand a 
vigorous attack. Don John suggested that this ex- 
pense might be spared, and the amount employed 
in augmenting the fleet, so that it might command 
the sea, and render it possible to undertake offen- 

* Raggazzoni, Relat. di Sicilia, MS. " Don Giovanni 
d' Austria andando con l'armata al re Filippo all' impresa de 
Tunisi fece curar et aprir essa bocca et vi entro dentro con 
l'armata predetta." 

t Memorial de Antonio Perez del hecho de su causa, 
p. 188. 

t " Non posso negare," said Don John to Lippomano, " di 
esser giovane et soldato, et soglio dire che chi non mira in- 
nanzi, a dietro torna: ma non voglia Iddio che io desideri 
mai che sia istromento di guerra tra Christiani. Contra il 
Turco sono dritte le mie speranze : pure alia fine in qua- 
lunque parte mi venga l'occasione di adoperare l'armi, diro 
come si dice in galera quando il comite dice Ave Maria che 
ogni uno risponde Sia la benvenuta: cosi faro io, venden- 
domi Toccasione." 



sive measures on an important scale *. It was his 
ambition to have the uncontrolled command of 
such a fleet of three hundred vessels, or there- 
abouts. It was reasonable to expect that the 
Venetians, who had cause to apprehend from so 
faithless a neighbour the same fate for Candia 
and Corfu that had befallen Cyprus, would after 
all afford their co-operation. The Turks from 
being the assailants might then be made the as- 
sailed, and seeing the existing condition of their 
empire, the most brilliant results might be antici- 
pated. But it was to no purpose he stated all this 
to the privy council. " Had it been advisable 
Charles V. would have done it," was their reply f. 
They took no heed to the difference between Soli- 
man and his successors, or to the fact that in the 
days of Charles V. such a course as that proposed 
was foi'bidden by the interests of Doria. There 
was no moving these Spaniards to any innovation. 
Don John was forced to confess to himself how 
matters stood ; he was forced to admit the convic- 
tion that there was no hope of a well concerted en- 
terprise on the part of Spain alone against the 
Turks, nor yet of a league: it has always been a 
prominent tendency of European policy to pre- 
serve the Turks ; at last he was constrained to ! 
turn away his thoughts from this favourite concep- ! 
tion of his youth. 

They were now entangled in the mazes of Euro- 
pean intrigues. 

Philip, weary at last of the war in Flanders, 
which Alva's violent measures had rather kindled . 
; than extinguished, now bethought him that the : 
people of the Netherlands had always shown i 
a certain partiality for Don John, who was born 
among them, and who so much resembled the fa- 
ther they held in reverence J. Why should he re- 
main any longer in Italy ? Philip determined to 
send him to the Netherlands to allay the troubles j 
there by amicable means. Don John, without hesi- 
tation, declared his readiness to undertake the 
I office. He sent Escovedo to the court to procure 
what was necessary for his journey §. 

But were his views directed only to the Nether- 
i lands ? It would doubtless have been an honour- 
j able renown to have reclaimed revolted provinces 
! by gentle means, and to have assuaged the rage of 
angry passions: but he who would seek such a re- 
nown should not be a young man. He had other 
objects. 

He had become acquainted in Italy with pope 
Gregory ||, and with the Guises ; and these had 

* Lippomano calculates thus: "Le 300 galere, como si 
| potriano tenere armati cinque o sei mesi dell' anno sola- 
| mente, cosi tenendo anco di 150 continuo con ogni sorte di 
provisione et di genti da spada ancora non costeriano, per 
conto particolare che io hebbi da un principal signore, piu 
che 2 milioni et mezzo d'oro l'anno, con facilita di fare quell' 
impresa che le Signorie Yostre Ecc. si possono imaginare." 

f "Rispondendo S. M. et alcuni del conseglio di Spagna, 
che se il fare un numero grosso di armata et levar parte dei 
presidii fusse stato giudicato espediente dall' imperatore 
Carolo V., la M. S. l'haverebbe fatto." 

J Lippomano: "Sendo di madre Fiamengha et il nome 
suo celebre in quei paesi bassi." Philip said he expressly 
sent him "para ser governador, no como en los principios de 
la guerra." Cabrera, 845. 

§ Lippomano and Perez, 191 

|| It is to be remarked that Escovedo -was at the court of 
Gregory. " A Santita Sua ho mandato a dir a bocca per lo 
secretario Escovedo." 



46 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



directed his whole attention to the affairs of Eng- 
land and Scotland, and to that lovely woman in her 
prison, to whom the crowns of both kingdoms 
seemed of right to belong, and who numbered so 
many adherents in both countries. John entered 
into these schemes*; they harmonized at once with 
his chivalric inclinations, his catholic feelings, and 
his thirst to win himself a kingdom. Only the 
consent of Philip II. was indispensable. 

At last overtures were made to Antonio Perez. 
Assured of his silence, the parties interested ap- 
plied to him in profound secresy to exert his influ- 
ence in the matter f. The man they selected was 
able enough, had he only been more trustworthy. 
Perez went instantly and imparted the whole 
secret to the king. 

How astounded and alarmed was Philip ! He 
saw that Escovedo too was following precisely in 
the footsteps of Soto. So he forbore to dispatch 
his business, and he sent Don J ohn no money. But 
far greater still was his alarm, when, contrary to 
an express command that he should without delay 
cross the Alps, and contrary to the order of Juan 
Idiaquez, Don John arrived in Spain on the 23rd 
of Aug. 1576, entered the roads of Barcelona with 
three galleys, and at once took his way to Madrid J. 
Philip hardly knew how to measure out to him the 
marks of honour he should receive, without on the 
one hand offending him, or on the other encourag- 
ing his aspiring soul to greater ambition. Should 
he forbid his enterprise ? In that case his zeal in 
the affairs of the Netherlands would be damped. 
Should he consent to it % He no longer trusted 
him: this would be still more dangerous. But Don 
John pursued his course so steadily, he proceeded 
with such perfect knowledge of the court and of 
his brother's temper, that the latter at last acqui- 
esced in his design. He was at liberty to attempt 
it with the Spanish troops, which in any case were 
to be withdrawn from the Netherlands. 

John arrived in the Netherlands provided with 
money, full of grander hopes and purposes than 
ever, and connected by new and closer understand- 
ings with the Guises. His first efforts were for the 
pacification of the country. The people too were 
disposed that way, and it was not long before an 
arrangement was come to on all but a few points. 
Who would have supposed that in those excep- 
tional points the interests of Philip and Elizabeth, 
such bitter enemies, coalesced, and that the Ne- 
therlander combated them both at once without 
being aware of it ? The matter was, that the Ne- 
therlander demanded the immediate evacuation of 
the country by the Spanish troops by land, and 
were inexorable in their determination that this 
should be so, whilst Don John thought of removing 
them by sea, and demanded three months' delay 
to allow of the fleet being equipped §. This frus- 
trated the whole design, Philip's consent to which 

* Strada, de Bello Belgico, particularly i. c. viii. 232. 

+ " Que haga officio," says Perez himself, "consuMagestad, 
para que su Magestad tenga por men que si haga la empresa 
de Inglaterra y que el Serior Don Juan sea acomodato en 
aquel reyno." The pope refers his nuncio in the year 1577 
to Perez, Ministro principale del re, che intendeva hene il 
negotio. MS. 

% Cabrera. Particularly Memorial de Antonio Perez de 
hecho de su causa, 192. 

§ Perez. Cabrera, p. 899, is silent on this point. Bor, 
Nederlandsche Oorlogen, i. pp. 765. 841, edition of 1679, 



had been specially given on the aforesaid condition. 
This was really a curious conjuncture of things. 
Elizabeth is freed from a great danger, of which 
she is perhaps unaware. The Netherlanders are 
her preservers, without their suspecting that they 
are so. What they do, they do to the delight of 
Philip, their own and Elizabeth's vehement adver • 
sary. But was all this indeed not so wholly acci- 
dental ? Was there a natural connexion between 
these events, though concealed from the eyes of 
the public and of historians ? 

There was nothing more to be expected of Philip 
in this matter. The pope, indeed, interceded in 
the most urgent manner to press the execution of 
the design. He ordered his nuncio in Flanders, 
who was best informed respecting the affair, to pro- 
ceed to Madrid, charging him immediately on his 
arrival to make " a spirited attack" on the king ; 
and he wrote letter upon letter to the nuncio, always 
to the same effect. In truth, the nuncio displayed 
a zeal in stimulating the king, and in propitiating 
the ministers, which promised assuredly in the end 
to further an affair which he represented as a 
matter not of choice, but of necessity. Philip, more- 
over, willingly lent his ear to such representations; 
he listened with interest to more detailed discussions, 
and he even gave access once more to Escovedo, 
and communicated to him papers not before in his 
hands, which bore upon the subject. So far the 
nuncio had hopes. But if, as he says, he sought to 
entice the king further, if he would obtain from him 
a decisive word, the king retreated; "the affair," he 
would say, " was difficult ; it needed further con- 
sideration." At first, this hesitation and evasion 
seemed probably chargeable upon the ministers ; 
but the nuncio soon saw that the cause lay deeper, 
and that the king was filled with distrust against 
his brother. He wrote to Rome, that if they would 
have the design prosper, they must at least give up 
all thoughts of Don John *. 

Thenceforth things wore a darker and darker 
aspect daily for Don John. It is the nature of the 
soul, that when disappointed in its original pur- 
poses, it indulges in vague longings and projects, 
and gives itself up to far greater schemes, as though 
it would defy untoward fortune by the grandeur of 
its enterprises ; doubly does it feel conscious of its 
repressed energies, but at the same time a gloomy 
discontent sits brooding in its inmost depths. In 
the first place, Don John became aware that he 
could not remain in the Netherlands. It was 
necessary to establish there a popular system of 
government, more suitable to the yielding softness 
of a woman, than to his temper and his youth ; he 
was not made for the dull routine of such a govern- 
ment. Besides this, the presumptions against him 
were too strong f. Ere long we find him tormented 
with impatience to quit the country. He said there 

states these things in detail. Even supposing him to have 
made use of Perez, as I think is probable, yet he has much 
special matter derived from other sources, The Justificatie 
der Staten tegensDon Jan, Bor, 159, is decisive. Wagenaar, 
Niederland. Gesch. iii. 382, follows Bor. 

* Relatione compendiosa della negotiatione di Monsr Sega, 
vescovo della Bipa et poi de Piacenza nella corte del re 
catolico, MS. 

t Brieven van den Heere Don Jan aen den Heere Antonio 
Perez van den 7 April, 1577. See a very important piece 
from letters seized in Gascogne, in the By voegsel van authen- 
tyke Stukken, Bor, 167. Also Bor's eleventh book. 



THE SECOND MINISTRY OF PHILIP II. 



47 



was nothing he would not sooner do than remain 
there; he would be gone, right or wrong ; he would 
do so, though he should pay for his offence with his 
blood; he wasted there life and honour, nay, his 
soul was perilled by his desperation *. But after 
all, his mind was not decidedly made up. For 
awhile, he thought of attempting the English pro- 
ject in another way ; now he thought it more ex- 
pedient to return to Spain, where, with the aid of 
his friends, he could have no difficulty in placing 
himself at the head of the administration ; and now 
he requested permission to take part in the French 
war, as leader of an independent force of 6000 in- 
fantry and 2000 cavalry f. All these wishes had 
for their ultimate end a great dominion, whether in 
England, France, or Spain. In fact, the proceed- 
ings he engaged in, from motives of this kind, can- 
not have been perfectly inoffensive. It was known 
that he kept up intimate correspondences in Italy ; 
the Spanish ambassador in France noticed very 
distinctly, how frequently his envoys presented 
themselves to the Guises, and how often the Guises 
visited him in the Netherlands J. At last, well- 
informed persons spoke seriously of a league con- 
cluded between Don John and the Guises, osten- 
sibly for the support of the two crowns, but in 
reality, for the purpose of subjecting both to their 
party. For what other object could such a league 
have ? The very thing of which the Guises ac- 
cused Henry III., a lukewarm indifference in the 
affairs of the catholic faith, was at this time charge- 
able, with some show of truth, against Philip II., 
who was not to be moved to any decisive warfare 
against the Turks, who had only yielded a forced 
and reluctant consent to the enterprise against 
Elizabeth, and who had concluded peace with the 
people of the Netherlands. 

Philip now knew enough to be filled with suspi- 
cion, and to fear what he knew, but still more what 
was unknown to him. He had found means to make 
himself acquainted successively with all the secrets 
of the party, through Perez, who was in their con- 
fidence ; and he even went so far as to allow the 
minister, for the sake of appearing more attached 
to them, to write disparagingly of his master, the 
king himself enduring to read the drafts of these 
letters, and to correct them with his own hand §. 
Such was the craft necessary to obtain a knowledge 
of Don John's designs. Now, what was Philip to 
think, when it was reported to him that Escovedo 
had let fall hints that all Castile might be mastered 
from Santander and Pena de Mogro ; and when 
Escovedo himself soon afterwards sent him in a 
memorial, requesting that Pena should be fortified, 
and that he should be put in command there ? 
Escovedo pursued all his affairs with an ardour in- 
tolerable to this deliberate monarch ; he was im- 
portunately eager for the despatch of his business. 
The theme of Don John's letters was continually, 
" Money and Escovedo, and more money." 

Now as Escovedo seemed exceedingly dangerous, 
dangerous if he remained at court, still more so if 
he went back to Don John, Philip resolved to have 

* Carta del Senor Don Juan de primero de Marco de 77 a 
Antonio Perez. Perez 195. 

t Carta de 3 de Hebrero de 77, Perez 196. 

I Ragguaglio delle pratiche tenute con il re di Spagna 
dalli Signori di Guisa nella lega di Francia in tempo del re 
Henrico III. Inform, xvii. No. 11, MS. 

§ Perez, Memorial. 



him put to death, but in such a way that suspicion 
should not fall on himself, but on others. Perez 
took upon himself to see that Escovedo should be 
killed. Some * say, indeed, that the king did not 
command the assassination, that he only did not 
disapprove of it ; but is not a king's approval in 
such a case equivalent to a command % 

This was the sorest blow for Don John. It is 
hardly possible that he should not have seen into 
the secret bearings of the case, and been sensible 
of his brother's hatred. The affairs of the Nether- 
lands had taken a turn that promised tedious wars 
and odious difficulties without end, a turn moreover 
which was imputed to his impetuosity f . He was 
once more indeed victorious, but he felt the vigour 
of his life already broken. He now only dreamed 
of finding in a convent the contentment which the 
world denied him. He comforted himself with the 
bitter consolation, that he would devote himself, 
among the hermits of Montserrat, to the service of 
that God who was mightier, and more gracious than 
his brother Philip \. But even this was not vouch- 
safed him. Young as he was, his life declined as 
if bowed by age, and many feared that he was 
labouring under the effects of poison. He died in 
his thirty-third year, on the 1st October, 1578. His 
heart was found dried up, and his skin withered as 
if by fire. For the wretched remains of his mortal 
existence, of which so little other trace remained, 
that it was as though it had never been, he begged 
of his brother in his last moments a place near the 
bones of their father ; then would his services be 
well repaid §. 

Such is this world. It tempts a man to unfold 
all his innate powers ; it stimulates all his hopes. 
He then thinks not of moderation or self-control ; 
conscious of his own energies, he presses onwards 
after the proudest prizes of honour or worldly for- 
tune. But the world grants them not ; it closes 
its bars against him, and leaves him to die. 

4. The second ministry of Philip II. 

Whilst we follow the course of events, whilst we 
seek to explain them from their moving causes, in 
whatever these may have had their being, whether 
in the soul or in personal circumstances, or other- 
wise, we fall in occasionally with unexpected ex- 
pressions, that suggest to us the presence of a secret 
element at work in the events ; expressions, on 
which it is very hazardous to build, while on the 
other hand it would seem negligent to overlook 
them. We meet with such an expression respect- 
ing the court and state of Spain, and belonging to 
the year 1578, of which we are treating. It is 
fully authenticated ; it is recorded by the imperial 
ambassador, count Khevenhiller, who is generally 
rather prone to suppress such things, and it is as- 
cribed to the almirante of Castile, a man of the ful- 
lest information, who lived in the midst of public 
affairs. The almirante complained to the count 
that Philip's government was a government not of 
justice, but of revenge : the children of those who 
had taken part in the war of the comuneros 

* Cabrera. Perez from the king's letters, p. 200. 

t Negotiatione di Mr Sega : " Restando il re mal satisfatto 
dalla sua ritirata in Namurco, dalla quale pareva che fossero 
procedute le perdite di tante piazze et provincie intiere." 

% Strada, de Bello Belgico, x. 

§ Cabrera, Felipe segundo, lib. xii. cap. xi. p. 1008. 



48 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



against king Charles and the nobility, were now at 
the helm, and their aim was to revenge themselves 
on their opponents *. Can it have been, we ask, 
that in spite of so totally new and altered a condition 
of the state, the old Castilian factions still subsisted, 
and continued to wage secret war with each other ? 
And if a man of such note and so intimately ac- 
quainted with the existing state of things made this 
assertion, can it have been that no other traces ap- 
peared of this continuous strife ? 

It seems that such traces did exist. Those ani- 
mosities, which had formerly divided the Spaniards 
between Ferdinand and Philip I., still endured 
under Charles. We recollect it has been asserted 
that Chievres leaned more to the one party, Gat- 
tinara more to the other. Navagero tells us, with 
reference to the year 1525, that all Toledo was 
divided into the factions of the Ayalas and the 
Silvas f. The Ayalas had adopted the side of the 
comuneros, the Silvas that of the king. It seems 
however that Charles had contrived to retain both 
parties in his service. On the accession of Philip II. 
they make their appearance again. Cavallo tells 
us that Philip II. bestowed such high favour on 
the condestable, a leader of the party of the nobles 
and of Philip I., that the consequence would neces- 
sarily be the decline of the house of Alva J, a house 
that had always been against this party, always on 
the side of Ferdinand the Catholic, and frequently 
on that of the towns. May there not have been some 
connexion between these facts and the enmity 
between Alva and Ruy Gomez de Silva, who was 
very closely connected with the first houses of the 
grandees 3 Cabrera does not conceal the fact that 
the old parties still subsisted in the time of Phi- 
lip II. in Plasencia, Truxillo, Xeres, and Seville; 
and he extols this sovereign for the ability he 
showed in preventing the outbreak of their mutual 
hatred §. 

Now if those dissensions among the Castilian 
nobles, which displayed themselves so violently 
in the war of the comunidades, were in fact not 
yet allayed, it remains to be asked who were those 
powerful sons of the comuneros of whom the almi- 
rante spoke 1 There may possibly have been a 
greater number, but unquestionably I find at this 
time at the court only two chiefs of the comunero 
party, but those two from the capitals of the realm, 
Toledo and Madrid. The Ayalas in Toledo and the 
Zapatas in Madrid were at the head of the insur- 
gents against the king. In the year 1578 we find 
a Zapata, Francisco count of Barajas, mayordomo- 
mayor to the queen, and an Ayala, Pedro count 
of Fuensalida, mayordomo to the king; the latter 
so much in favour with Philip, that after the death 
of Alva he succeeded to all the latter's court pre- 
ferments. May we suppose that the influence 
which Alva still maintained after his return 
throughout numerous vicissitudes ||, the influence 

* Khevenhiller, Annales Ferdinandei I. fol. 41. 

t Navagero, Viaggio in Ispagna, p. 354. 

I Cavallo: "Ha grande inclinatione al contestabile di 
Castiglia, di modo che questo fara anco che il duca d'Alva et 
la casa di Toledo non continuera in favore come e al pre- 
sente." 

§ Cabrera, 273. The Peticion xlviii. of the Cortes of 1558 
may also refer to this, where it says, " En los pueblos hay 
opiniones enojos y enemistades." 

|| Negotiatione di Mr Sega of the year 1577. " II segretario 
Antonio Perez, con quale concoirevano l'arcivescovo di To~ 



of Chinchon de Bobadilla, of the house of Cabrera, 
which had once been in the position of that of 
Alva, and the high consideration enjoyed by 
Almazan, were regarded by the almirante as 
effects of the power of the comunero party ? 
Thus much is clear, that this party had much to 
do with the final overthrow of that of prince Ruy 
Gomez, and that the before-mentioned Zapata in 
particular had much share in the downfal of 
Perez. 

The prince's party belonged by all means to the 
opponents of the comuneros; and so in a remark- 
able degree did the Mendozas, the family of the 
princess. The wife of Perez was of the family of 
the Coellos, who adhered so strenuously to the em- 
peror's party in the insurrection that their man- 
sion in Madrid was demolished by the Zapatas *. 
We will not however take upon us to affirm that 
nothing but the old quarrel set on the enemies of 
the house of Eboli. Other causes may also have 
co-operated to this end. It is enough to say, that 
enemies there were, and that they were powerful. 

The princess, Veles, and Perez, at this time the 
sole remains of the Eboli party, were soon aware 
of this among themselves. The princess felt most 
sensibly the diminished favour with which her 
house was regarded. When the president of Cas- 
tile repeatedly refused her privileges which had 
before been conceded to her, and which were still 
constantly enjoyed by others, she addressed herself 
to Philip as her king and as a knight. " The pre- 
sident," she said, " fortified himself with the royal 
name. Was this the gracious reward for her hus- 
band's long services ? Was her house wholly to lose 
all that remained to it, the credit and consideration 
it had hitherto maintained f ?" What Veles most 
felt was the unhappy contest with a violently in- 
censed party, which there was no hope of over- 
coming, since they had a thousand holds upon the 
king. He felt this so keenly that he preferred to 
quit the court; that in his exile he consoled himself 
with the reflection that he had escaped the out- 
breaks of this enmity; nay that he even thought of 
fleeing to Peru. " They oppress thee," he exclaims, 
" even when they do not possess the king's favour ; 
let them once obtain that, and they will take away 
thy honour and thy life J." 

Lastly, Perez felt the preponderance of his anta- 
gonists as a personal mischance. Antonio Perez 
belonged in every respect to the number of the 
Spaniards of those times, who combined with a gra- 
vity, that became with them a second nature, a 
passionate eagerness to enjoy the world, with pro- 
found pride a still more profound craft, and with 
much external religion a policy regardless of all 
principle. He was at once a statesman and a cour- 
tier; the fortune of a royal favourite was the aim 

ledo, il marchese de los Velos, il Escovedo : ma dell' altro 
canto il duca d'Alva con altri che lo seguitavano. Questa 
diversita di pareri era non solo in questo negotio (d'lnghil- 
terra), ma anco negli altri piu importanti di Fiandra." 

* For the "grandes enemistades entre los padres yabuelos 
del Conde de Barajas y de Dona Johanna," see Perez, Rela- 
ciones, 119. Perez adds, in the later editions of his Memo- 
rial, p. 217, "En verdad, algunos ministros de las persecu- 
ciones destas personas eran descendientes de los comuncos." 

t Carta de la Princesa d'Eboly al Rey, in Perez, Rela- 
ciones, 15. 

I Carta del Marques de los Velez, 26 Jan. 1579, in Perez, 
Relaciones, 12. 



THE SECOND MINISTRY OF PHILIP II. 



49 



of his endeavours. For this he ventured to play j 
the perilous game of sharing the confidence of two i 
enemies, and betraying one of them; for this he 
looked even on crime steadily and unflinchingly ; 
" he needed no other theology than his own, which 
allowed him this * f with such a sort of ingenuous 
simplicity did he habitually practise these princi- 
ples, that he tells all these things without reserve 
or apology. When he lent the king his hand in so 
serious a matter as the murder of Escovedo, he no 
i doubt thought that he should thereby gain another j 
j step in the royal favour. Soon after the deed 
Philip conferred on him the place of protkonotary 
of Sicily, with a revenue of 12,000 ducats; he also 
gave him the office of secretary to the council of 
Italy, by virtue of which the greater part of the 
affairs of that country were also placed in his 
hands. In the enjoyment of this favour, still young, 
in the full possession of bodily and mental vigour, 
alert and spirited, — had Perez reason to fear for 
himself+ I 

The hostile party was in such good condition 
that they ventured to assail even him without hesi- 
tation. They made use of the assassination of 
Escovedo, the suspicion of which he had brought 
on himself. They particularly employed against j 
him a man like himself, a cabinet secretary of the 
king's, named Matteo Vazquez, This man had 
acquired his masters entire favour, and great in- 
fluence with him in the discharge of his office, 
which consisted in sorting the memorials sent in, 
distributing them among the several functionaries j 
to whom they appertained, receiving their opinions j 
thereon, and laying them before the king for his 
final decision. The count de Barajas and the king's 
confessor were his patrons, the princess and Perez 
hated him %. He returned their hate. He went so 
far as to append with his own hand a lampoon I 
| against them both to a document addressed to 
Perez from the royal cabinet. Could it have been 
| supposed that Philip should have caught up the j 
i lampoon with curiosity, read it, recognized the 
| handwriting of his secretary, and yet not punished j 
him \ At first the king excused himself, saying, 
that a the man had matters of too much moment : 
still in his hands." Afterwards he exacted from j 
Perez, nay, even from the princess, a reconciliation j 
with Vazquez, and he was indignant when this was 
not complied with. Whilst he now continued to 
write to Perez, whilst he consoled him for the loss 
of the marquis de los Veles, who died on his jour- 
ney, telling him that he, the king, would not fail him, 
he had nevertheless resolved on his fall §. On the 
28th of June, 1579, an alcalde put Antonio Perez 
in arrest in his chamber, and on the same day the 
princess of Eboli was carried off to the fortress of 

* Copia de un villete de Antonio de Perez para S. M. 
respondido en la margen de su Teal mano : the king replies, 
" Segun mi theologia yo entiendo lo mismo que vos." [Ac- 
cording to my theology, I think as you do.] Memorial, p. 
198. 

t Contarini, 461 : " Questo Antonio Perez fu intimo et 
confidentissimo segretario di S. M. et maneggiava li piu im- 
portant! et segreti negotii dello stato, onde dalla gran con- 
fidenza che in lui mostrava il re. comincio ad assumersi 
maggiore autorita di quello che si conveniva." 

X Cabrera, 971. Perez speaks of a -i Liga del amistad del 
conde de Barajas contra la amistad de los Veles y de Antonio 
Perez." 

§ Palabras singulares del Rey, in Perez. 179. 



Pinto. So ended the prosperity of the party of 
Ruy Gomez *. 

It is not necessary to examine further how the 
affair of Perez, the chief feature of which was the 
prosecution for the murder of Escovedo, carried on 
by a relation of the murdered man, terminated 
after being repeatedly suspended, and taken up 
again, after reiterated promises and deceits, in 
close imprisonment, torture, and flight. It is very 
remarkable of Perez, how the devotion to the king, 
implanted in him from his youth upwards, was not 
to be shaken by any indignities; how even in his 
exile in France, he was always discreet, betrayed 
no secrets, uttered no unseemly accusations, con- 
tenting himself with mere self-defence, and saying 
nothing worse than that he could tell more if he 
would ; how moreover he lived on solely in the re- 
collection of his court favour and fortune, till at 
last he made it his task to lay down rules for princes 
and favourites ; rules that really display deep pene- 
tration, though I know not whether they ever 
proved more useful to others than to himself *h 

What is most important to our subject is the 
change effected in Philip's ministry on the day of 
the arrest of Perez. On that same 28th of July, 
1579, Granvella and Juan Idiaquez entered Madrid, 
the former called to the presidency of the council 
of Castile, the latter in opposition to the king's ex- 
press command. But that express command had 
been given at the instance of Perez, who feared the 
influence of Idiaquez with the king. Probably the 
latter was well aware how slight was the hold 
Perez had on Philip. He followed the advice of 
Granvella, and went to Madrid in spite of the pro- 
hibition; the arrival of the two was fatal to PerezJ. 
Though I cannot distinctly show the connexion 
between these events, it is nevertheless manifest 
that there was a very intimate association between 
them. 

From that time Granvella and Idiaquez took the 
helm. The potency obtained by the former, though 
never much talked of, nor ever placed in the same 
conspicuous light as that he had exercised in the 
Netherlands, was perhaps the most important he 
ever possessed. Idiaquez was in high favour with 
the king. There was soon associated with these two 
a third, named Christdval de Moura, who secured 
to himself a still greater share of Philip's favour. 
However great may have been the influence occa- 
sionally obtained by others, it was these three, and 
after Granvella's death the two remaining favourites 
alone, who managed the machinery of the Spanish 
empire. 

A general remark presents itself to us touching 

* "We find (e. g. in Leti) complicated stories of the amours 
of the princess of Eboli with the king and with Perez. Let 
the reader take into consideration that the princess was 
already in years, and had lost an eye, that the wife of Perez, 
doubtless not devoid of Spanish jealousy, gave proof of 
enduring passion for her husband ; after this, let him believe 
such late rumours if he has a mind to do so. 

t A MS. essay, " Discorso bellissimo di quello devon fare 
i favoriti," affords us indications of the applause obtained by 
these Cartas: "Con tanto e cosi continuo applauso? Mi 
fu," says the author, " al fine data questa lettera per cosa 
unica e singolare, et chi me la diede, come pretiosissima 
gioia me la porse." The letter is from the Cartas. 

X A letter of the king's at the moment of Granvella's 
arrival. Memorial, 20-5. Cabrera, 1047 — copious respect- 
ing Moura. 



50 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



their policy. During the first twenty years of his 
reign, Philip's efforts were directed to the mainte- 
nance of peace, and to the preservation of things 
as they were. If he waged war in Flanders, he 
had there to do with a rebellion, which he had pro- 
voked indeed, but a rebellion it was. War was in 
this case only a means to the maintenance of his 
authority, and of the Catholic religion. But else- 
where Philip engaged in those years in no exten- 
sive schemes; he did not sow dissensions in foreign 
countries, nor had he any thoughts of universal 
monarchy. From the very first he plainly lacked 
the ambition, and the bold projects of his father. 
This was especially what Don Carlos regarded as 
censurable, and unworthy of their ancestors. The 
Venetians, on the other hand, and the Italians, 
thought this very thing highly laudable. Which- 
ever judgment was right, the fact at least was ad- 
mitted on all hands *. 

That which properly brought on this monarch 
the world's hatred, which has so long clung to his 
memory, belongs to his last twenty years. It was 
within this period he conquered Portugal, and sent 
out the armada against England; it was then he 
had a hand in all the internal commotions of France, 
and sought to bring the crown of that realm into 
his own house; it was then he waged incessantly 
vehement and successful war upon the Nether- 
landers, and then too he destroyed the freedom of 
Aragon, and exhausted and ruined the resources of 
his kingdom. 

Whence proceeded so striking a change? It may 
perhaps be imagined that the spirit of tbe times 
drove him upon a different path from that on which 
he had set out ; for if I am not deceived, about 
that same period all Europe assumed a far more 
warlike aspect than it had previously worn. But 
it is very plain that this new impulse proceeded for 
the most part from the Spaniards and from him- 
self. Furthermore, if we consider that the party 
of Buy Gomez, which had hitherto ruled the state, 
had always leaned to pacific measures; that the 
grandees, who adhered to that party, had invaria- 
bly insisted on a peaceful accommodation even of 
the disturbances in the Netherlands, particularly 
in opposition to Alva's adherents; that it was not 
till the fall of the Gomez party, and the formation 
of a new ministry, that the new principles came in 
vogue; it will then appear in the highest degree pro- 
bable that it was not so much a new modification 
of Philip's character that caused his altered policy, 
as the change of ministers, and if any thing besides 
this, nothing more perhaps than casual opportunity. 

We have no difficulty in pointing out the transi- 
tion by which Philip's earlier policy passed into 
that of his later years. Whereas there was nothing 
that sovereign had more dreaded than the schemes 
of the Guises, which embraced at once England and 
Scotland, France and the Netherlands, and the 
confederacy we have mentioned as subsisting be- 
tween them and Don John; it was now that very 
same confederacy which his ministers adopted in 
his name, and those same schemes were now taken 
up by himself Europe now dreaded alike his 
ends, and the means he took to gain them; it feared 

* Discorso al S* Landi, MS. " Essendo questo regno per- 
venuto nel presente re di Spagna tanto amico et desideroso 
della pace et particolarmente d'ltalia." 

t The embassy of Alonso de Sotomayor to France, Cabrera 
1009. 



the means, those subtle deceitful arts of which 
every one believed him guilty whether he practised 
them or not; such, for instance, as his writing that 
letter, in which he, the most Catholic of sovereigns, 
was said to have offered money to the Protestant 
princes of Bearn to induce them to attack Henry III., 
a dispatch in which the hand of Idiaquez was recog- 
nized: it feared the end he aimed at, the establish- 
ment of an universal monarchy. The idea of the 
balance of powder had taken a peculiar shape about 
this time. It was wished that two great powers, 
tolerably equal in strength, might stand over against 
each other, so that the smaller powers might always 
find protection from the one or the other *. The 
destruction of such an equipoise seemed destined to 
lead directly to universal monarchy. It came to 
pass that Philip gradually became hated and dread- 
ed by all Europe, by those he immediately attacked, 
and by those who were remotely threatened by 
him. 

Thus we perceive how important was the new 
ministry. Moura was so especially ; he was, as a 
Relatione says, the soul of Philip. Whilst Philip 
could not sufficiently extol him, declaring, " he had 
never found a man so deserving of trust in the 
weightiest affairs, so loyal to God and his king, so 
free from ambition and avarice f ;" the rest of the 
world beheld him with wonder, amazed to think 
how he had contrived by his services and his mo- 
deration to acquire such complete control over 
this monarch, who in his later years was almost 
inaccessible to every one J. Next to him a consi- 
derable influence was permanently maintained by 
Idiaquez, who had the talent to play even the 
second part, and who was given credit for shrewdly 
shaping his course by the prevailing wind §. Con- 
tarini drew no bad parallel between these two men 
in tbe year 1593. " Idiaquez," he says, " having 
seen much of the world, knows how to content those 
who transact business with him. Moura, a Portu- 
guese, having never been beyond the Peninsula, is 
more austere and intractable. The former, who 
long filled the office of secretary of state, is much 
better acquainted with foreign affairs; the latter, 
who did good service in the conquest of Portugal, 
is a greater favourite with the king. The former 
is recommended by long service and great expe- 
rience ; it is the advantage of the latter that he is 
placed in his majesty's chamber, and is frequently 
about the royal person ||. It is common to them 
both that it is only in urgent cases they importune 

* Perez : " Que se conserven en ygual peso para balancas, 
en que los demas se ygualen y contrapesen para su conser- 
vation. 

+ Philip's words, reported by Gonzalo Davila, Felipe III. 
p. 13. 

I Cabrera, 1045: "Muchos servicios y su moderacion le 
conservo siempre bien visto." 
§ Davila, Felipe III. p. 36. 

|| Contarini: "L'uno che e Don Giovanni, e Biscaino; 
l'altro e Portoghese. Quello ha la cura delle cose d'ltalia : 
questo di Portugallo e delle Indie. Quello per essere stato 
per il mondo da maggiore satisfattione a i negotiante : 
questo per non essere mai uscito di Spagna e piu austero e 

difficile Quello per la lunghezza della servitu e piu 

stimato : questo per godere l'officio della camera di S. M. ha 
piu spesso occasione di trovarsi (appresso): quello per le 

lunghe esperienze e piu adoperato II consiglio di 

stato e gli altri consigli di S. M. non hanno alcuna parte 
nelle cose importanti che alia giornata occorrono, ma sola- 
mente li sono delegate alcune di poco momento." 



PHILIP III. AND LERMA. 



51 



the king with anything novel, and that they pro- 
crastinate all business, all weighty decisions, as 
much as possible. By so doing they please his ma- 
jesty. He gives them proof of this, not only by his 
munificence towards them, but above all, by the 
exclusive confidence he reposes in them. Only 
trivial matters are now laid before the privy coun- 
cil, and it has no power. Every thing of moment 
is discussed and settled by these two." 

5. Philip III. and Lerma. 

Now if it is probable that a sovereign so busy, 
self-willed, and alive to his own interest, as Philip 
was, so dependent on his ministers, that with a 
change in these his whole policy underwent an 
alteration, what must have been the case under his 
son, who was neither efficient, nor shrewd, nor had I 
any will of his own ! 

Philip II. died in great despondency. He wit- 
nessed the delivery by Moura of his key of office to ; 
the prince's favourite. The last order he reluc- 
tantly gave was to that effect. The dying monarch 
was not spared; he was forced to see the transfer- 
ence of power to that man whose influence he 
most feared*. 

It requires a sort of self-denial to resolve on 
being in all respects the follower of one's prede- 
cessor. Commonly princes form for themselves a 
system of action that suits their nature, long before I 
their accession to the throne; and this they con- 
tinue, not making their own lives a mere sequel j 
to their fathers'. Had not Philip II. done this I 
He too had committed the management of the state 
to the court assigned him for the service of his 
person. So likewise had his son, and so do all j 
monarchs. 

When Philip II., some years before, designing 
to form a court for his son, looked about him for 
persons of good birth and good reputation, yet not 
self-sustained and independent, he fixed his eyes 
on the count of Lerma, a courtier who with little 
property contrived nevertheless to content his ere- . 
ditors +, to marry his sisters well, aud to sustain a 
character for liberality. He placed him among j 
the rest, but the count soon overtopped his fellows, j 
The marchesana de Taglio X, and Muriel, gentlemen 
of the bed-chamber, both of whom were in favour 
with the prince, rendered him services. He con- 
trived to help the prince out of his little embarrass- j 
ments. It was observed that when the latter had 
promised a new suit to the court fool, and could 
not give it him, whereupon the fool importuned 
him with many a biting jest for the fulfilment of 
his promise, Lerma failed not to satisfy even the 
fool. But the main thing was that the count ex- | 
ercised a direct personal influence over the prince, 
for which there was no accounting on extraneous 
grounds. It was to no purpose that the king ba- i 
nished Lerma to the Yireynat of Valencia ; his 
very exile, his secret correspondence, and now and 
then a pretty present, only stimulated the prince's 
regard for him, and when he returned he was the 
declared favourite. When Philip III. ascended 
the throne there was no doubt as to the future. 

* Davila, Felipe III. lib. ii. p. 40. 

t Khevenhiller's report of 1606 : How Lerma avoided 
I pleito de accreditors. " Annal. Ferdin. vi. 3040. 

t Khevenhiller : the Marchesa della Valle " die nit klein 
Ursach dass er in dieser Privanz." 



His first act of royalty was to receive Lerma's 
oath; his first order, an unparalleled one, was to 
the effect that Lerma's signature should be as valid 
as his own. His first favours were conferred on 
Lerma; on the day the old king died it was made 
manifest that Lerma was all in all with the new 
sovereign *. 

Don Francisco Gomez de Sandoval y Roias, first 
count, and afterwards duke of Lerma, was one of 
that class of men who have the art of seeming. 
No man could bestow more care on his outward 
appearance, on his hah' and beard. He was already 
advanced in years, but he did not give token of this. 
He had not much real knowledge, yet he seemed 
to have mastered all branches of study, both theo- 
retically and practically. He perfectly understood 
the wonted tactics of statesmen high in office, to 
send away contented all who appear before them, 
and even those who were most aggrieved he dis- 
missed best satisfied +. He appeared open-handed 
and sumptuous, and in his manners and habits 
there was a certain royal magnificence. 

His power in the state was based chiefly on the 
consulta, that most private council in which all the 
resolutions of the various functionaries were ex- 
amined, and either adopted, or modified, or reject- 
ed, and from which initiated all grants of royal 
favour. Lerma transacted business hi this con- 
sulta with the king; and this council, which had 
formerly been the focus of royal omnipotence, was 
now that of ministerial despotism; all its decisions 
depended essentially on Lerma. 

So potent was the personal influence he had ac- 
quired over the king. Restlessly, carefully, and 
jealously, did he labour to retain it without a rival, 
He was apprehensive at one time of his sovereign's 
Austrian consort, at another time of the sister of 
Philip II., who was still living in Madrid, and who 
was scarcely his friend. He would not allow the 
two to converse together alone, or in German, and 
it is supposed he removed the court to Valladolid 
for the purpose of parting them. He went so far 
as to enjoin the queen never to speak to her hus- 
band on affairs of state, not even in bed; so that 
miserably restricted and circumvented as she was 
on all sides, she often wished that she was cloistered 
in the convent of-her native Gratz, rather than queen 
of Spain £. Even Muriel, and the marchioness de 
Vaglio, seemed to Lerma not sufficiently trust- 
worthy ; in the end, he thought it best to remove 
them. He trusted no one but the father confessor, 
fray Gaspar de Cordova, a man who went about in 

* Relatione della vita, etc. " Niono si dubitava d'altro se 
non che havesse d'essere potentissimo, et eosi fu tanta la 
moltirucline della gente che concorse a visitarlo et a servirlo, 
che basto per isbigottire li altri pretensori." 

t Ibid. ' - La piacevolezza del privato e cosi grande che 
quel che Tito dic-eva, 'neminem e conspectu suo tristem 
discedere,' fa al proposito. che a chi con 1'opere non si puo 
dar sodisfattione, si dia con le parole." Khevenhiller inter- 
weaves with his German the following Spanish words re- 
specting him: Lerma, he says, is " sospechoso, codiciosis- 
simo, y para sacar un gusto suo no mirara cosa alcuna," 
p. 3041 [suspicious, very covetous, stopping at nothing to 
gratify any desire of his]. We do not however put implicit 
faith in Khevenhiller. 

I Imprimis Khevenhiller, vi. 3040. Rel. della vita, etc. 
" Con l'imperatrice, che sia in cielo, hebbe S. E. alcuni dis- 
pareri: . . r . ma sendo egli cosi gran potente et quelia 
principessa iontana del mondo, li fu agevole il tutto vincere.'' 
E 2 



52 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



a ragged cowl and torn shoes, and who had neither 
talent nor inclination for affairs of government; 
and this man was entirely devoted to him *. Then 
he had in his house a young page, aged twenty, 
named Rodrigo Calderon, indefatigable, clever, 
subtle, and wholly his own. He promoted this 
young man to the gold key, and to the daily society 
of the king, and gave him the secretaryship of the 
consulta. Rodrigo, arrogant, full of effrontery, 
and greedy of gain as he was, nevertheless con- 
trived to ingratiate himself completely with the 
king ; but he was a man who needed a master ; he 
was nothing but a subtle servant, without loftier 
views ; he always employed his position for Ler- 
ma's advantage. The other persons about the king 
were likewise more devoted to Lerma than to him- 
self. It is incredible to what a degree he was 
under subjection to the favourite. It was ob- 
served once, that he made up his mind to make 
a little resistance against Lerma ; but upon the 
very first attempt to do so, he was seen to trem- 
ble all over. He could not keep any secret from 
him. Lerma was charged with the use of magic 
arts *f% 

The favourite next filled the most important 
places with his own creatures J. If Loaisa, arch- 
bishop of Toledo, was guilty of the villainy imputed 
to him, of having brought up the king with the hope 
and intention of making him his tool, he was now 
bitterly repaid for this, when Lerma announced to 
him in the Escurial, that the king had quitted the 
cloisters, but that he, the archbishop, might remain 
in them to consecrate an altar or two. He saw his 
own work turn to his destruction in the hands of 
his enemy. He died soon afterwards, from morti- 
fication of mind as it was supposed. After this, 
Lerma likewise removed the grand inquisitor, 
Portocarrero. He bestowed the two vacant offices, 
of which the one was regarded with deference and 
submission by the clergy for its time-honoured 
dignity, the other for its real power, on his uncle 
Bernardo de Sandoval. The presidency of the 
council of Castile, and with it the control over the 
civil affairs, was lost by Rodrigo Vazquez, who had 
so long held the office. Lerma gave it to Miranda 
of the house of Zunica, a man who had acquired a 
name by the part he took in Don John's campaigns; 
fortune, by a prosperous marriage, which no one 
would have predicted for him, for he seemed a 
mountain of flesh; and consequence, even in the eyes 
of Philip II., by the way in which he had made 
his functions subservient to the suppox't of the royal 
prerogatives. Lerma brought him entirely into 
his interest by a marriage between their children. 
Miranda allowed Lerma to interfere wdth the busi- 
ness of his own office, one of the hardest things for 
a man to submit to who covets distinction § ; but 

* Relat. della vita, etc. " Credesi per acquietare la gratia 
del duca sotto ombra et colore di santita fusse instrumento 
di persuadere al re cio che il duce desidera et vuole." 

t The serious opinion of the younger Khevenhiller. 

I Relat. della vita, &c. " Ha saputo il duca cosi ben fare 
i fatti suoi che ha mutato et ritornato da alto a basso tutti i 
creati del palazzo et ha posto intorno al re huomini che del 
tutto son sue fatture : et se qualch' uno de creati vecchi, 
come Don Henrico Guzman, e rimasto di essere con S. M. 
famigliare, e molto certo che cereo prima et ottenne il favore 
del duca." 

§ Ibid. " Vero e che alcune et molte volte il duca s'in- 
tromette nelli negotii con poca dignita del conte." 



his wealth daily augmented, and his splendour 
grew every day more and more dazzling ! 

The next thing to be done was to purify the privy 
council. Moura was made viceroy of Portugal, 
and soon took his departure for that country*. 
Juan Idiaquez was as compliant as ever, and the 
king and the favourite willingly allowed him to 
retain some of his consequence for the sake of his 
name. Probably Francesco Idiaquez, the brother 
of Juan, was not so tractable : or was it, that his 
office was thought of such moment that it could 
only be entrusted to a person of implicit devoted- 
ness ? Lerma removed him. Now, while he was 
looking about for a fit successor for him, it happened 
that a certain Franchezza was trying every art to 
ingratiate himself with the potent minister. This 
man stood high in the estimation of the world in 
general, from the great Indian wealth of his wife f ; 
he was recommended to the government function- 
aries by his prominent activity in the cortes of 
Aragon and Catalonia, and his support of Lerma's 
interests in those assemblies won him the good- 
will of the minister. Lerma bestowed the secre- 
taryship upon him, and found in him a man of un- 
wearied industry, and inviolably devoted to him. 
He himself took Moura's place. 

There is no telling the multitude of other changes 
Lerma found necessary. He treated even those 
he put down with a certain generosity ; he left 
them their titles and their incomes, but he did 
put them down and remove them. Above all, he 
exalted his own family. His brother was made 
viceroy of Valencia, Lemos, his brother-in-law, vice- 
roy of Naples. One of his sons in law was ap- 
pointed general of the Spanish galleys, the other 
president of the Indies, and his uncle, Borja, was 
president of the council of Portugal. He very soon 
allied himself by marriage with the families of 
Mendoza and Guzman : one of the former was 
made president of Italy, and another was admitted 
into the king's chamber; the post of grand-master 
of the horse was given to a Guzman. No sooner 
was an infante born than he was committed to the 
care of Lerma's sister. Gradually, too, he began 
to advance his sons to high dignities. The most 
important offices in the state were shared among 
this house, like a family property. 

How rapid and complete was the change in this 
court from what it had been under Philip II. 
There was now a favourite invested with royal 
authority, a great noble family at the head of pub- 
lic affairs, and access to the king was thrown open 
to the grandees. 

We shall see how the grandees lost their inde- 
pendence, lapsed from their warlike tendencies, and 
confined their ambition to leading a life of sump- 
tuous display. They came back to the court vying 
with each other in this display. We find heads of 
families never making their visits but with twenty 

* Khevenhiller as to the years 1599—1602, p. 2584, etc. 

t Relatione : " Figliuola di un calzettaro di Alcala de 
Henares, che era tomato dall' Indie con molta robba. — Le 
prime occasione che hebbe di farsi conoscere furono del 1585 
nella corte di Monzon, ove come piu vecchio protononotario 
di Aragona fu impiegato in quei negotii et mostrossi huomo 
da molto. — Partissi poi (1599) il re di Valenza et andossene 
a Barcellona per tenervi i corti di Catalani, et il duca di 
Lerma introdusse in quel negotio il segretario Franchezza, 
come pratico che n'era et conosceva li humori di Catalani. 
Di tutto diede al duca buon conio et molta sodisfattione." 



PHILIP III. AND LERMA. 



53 



carriages, and escorted by troops of gentlemen *. 
The ladies are accompanied each by their equerry 
on foot, and by all the gentlemen of her house f. 
The mutual reaction of the court and of the gran- 
dees produced a strange mixture of ceremony and 
luxury, which long continued predominant in all 
the courts of Europe, but which is particularly 
deserving of notice at the court of Spain. It has 
an immediate connection with Lerma's position and 
character. 

What a singular ceremony was that by which 
every departure of the court from place to place 
was announced. On the day before the general move, 
a part of the establishment set out, preceded by 
trumpeters; the kings of arms, the German and 
the Spanish guards, began their march, along with 
many others on horseback and on foot, forming the 
escort of the great seal. After the kings of arms, 
and immediately after the keepers and the lord 
high keeper of the seal, followed two mules bearing 
a frame covered with green cloth, and surmounted 
by a canopy adorned with the arms of Leon and 
Castile : on the frame lay a crimson velvet case, 
and in the case the great seal £. Next followed 
four macebearers with their maces, and then the 
soldiers of the guards. The principal persons, 
however, of the escort, turned back to be present 
likewise at the departure of the king. This singu- 
lar kind of parade was never more strikingly ex- 
hibited, than when the king or the queen ate in 
public. At the queen's table stood three ladies, 
with napkins neatly arranged over their shoulders. 
If the queen had a mind to drink, she made a sign 
to the first of these three ladies, she to the second, 
the second to the third, and the third to a mayor- 
domo. The mayor-domo made a sign to a page, 
and the page to a servant in the room : the servant 
called out in a loud whisper, " Without there," and 
then the page and he went out to the sewer. The 
page came back from him with a full covered gob- 
let in his right hand, and a gilded salver in his left. 
The servant accompanied him as far as the door, 
the mayor-domo went with him to the dais, and 
lastly the lady knelt with him before the queen. 
The lady tasted the beverage, having first poured 
some of it into the cover, and taking care not to 
touch even that with her mouth. The queen then 
drank; the lady and the page rose from their knees, 
and the former gave the goblet and the salver to 
the latter, which he carried back to their place. 

But with all this formality and stiffness, the 
thing had still its lively and pleasant side. Gran- 
dees and knights stood lounging on one side of the 

* Bassompierre, Journal de ma vie, p. 536; of Ossuna. 

t Relatione di 1611 : " Le signore per servitio loro tengono 
le donne che vogliono : ma sempre hanno quattro o sei gen- 
tilhuomini, che non servono ad altro che ad accompagnarle 
fuori et assistono alle visite, non ostante che menano ancora 
seco tutti gli altri gentilhuomini officiali di casa, come mag- 
giordomo, mastro di stalla et gli altri. Tengono ancora per 
servitio loro due palafrenieri et almeno quattro paggi. Per 
uscir di casa tutti hanno sedie e cocchio." 

I Ibid. " Van no dietro li 4 re d'armi con li loro habiti : 
seguitano le guardie del sigillo, con il guardiamaggiore : et 
poi una cosa come una lettiera, che portano due muli coperta 
di tela incerata verde, con baldachino foderato, con Farm e di 
Castiglia et di Lione dipinte, che porta dentro una cassa di 
velluto chremesino con l'inchiodature indorate, dentro la 
quale va detto sigillo reale ; quale accompagnano ancora li 
4 mazzieri con le loro insegne, et guardie d'Alemagni et di 
Spagnoli." 



room; the queen's ladies were present, the gentle- 
men accosted them, and a lively conversation was 
kept up. Even the three ladies in waiting were 
not so engrossed with their functions, but that they 
could salute their admirers *. It was this that 
made them so fond of the court journeys : the 
cavalier escorted his lady to her carriage, mounted 
his horse, and rode by her side, entertaining her 
with conversation by the way. 

The luxury practised by this court was often ill 
directed; but again, it was allied with a better im- 
pulse towards literature and art. If Cervantes had 
at last the enjoyment of learned leisure, he owed it 
to Lerma; and it was to a great man of this court 
he dedicated his Don Quixote. But above all, the 
theatre was an object of passionate predilection. 
The king had for himself and his grandees two 
companies, whom he paid 300 reals for each per- 
formance ; refreshments were distributed during 
the entertainment; it was with extreme reluctance 
this amusement was foregone on occasions of 
mourning, and during Lent. As Calderon de la 
Barca resided at this court from 1619, from his 
eighteenth to his twenty-fourth year, that most 
plastic period of life, when the character usually 
acquires its peculiar bent; as it was in such scenes 
he unfolded his fine talents ; and as the court sup- 
plied him not only with spectators, but doubtless 
also with most of his dramatis personse, and fre- 
quently with the subject of his dramas, we may 
fairly assert that we owe to this court, and pointedly 
to its fresh and original constitution, one of those 
few poets who have become European. The whole 
nation participated in this taste. To be sure, it was 
not permitted for any company to give representa- 
tions without a license under the king's own hand +, 
and the permission was only granted because three 
fourths of every giulio paid for admission were 
handed over to the hospitals, and only one fourth 
to the players: still it was granted. In the year 
1611 there were thirteen companies at the court, 
and in the country; and how far were the comedies, 
which began with the Cselestina, from the gravity 
of the court regulations ! 

We return to Lerma. Whereas, by his entire 
sway over the king, by means of the highest func- 
tionaries who were his instruments, by placing his 
relations in important offices, and with the aid of 
the grandees and nobles, whom he drew to the 
court, and on whom he bestowed favours and pre- 
sents, he had made himself the centre of the state, 
he likewise conducted the foreign policy of Spain 
on new principles. His views at first were for 
peace, and to this indeed he was impelled by ne- 
cessity. However strong the resistance he en- 
countered on the part of the priests, who wished 
to see English protestantism extirpated J, on the 

* Ibid. "Ragionano di quello che vogliono, con grand' 
allegrezza ; il che si permette in tali occasioni ; et l'istesse 
che servono, di quando in quando salutano li loro inamorati." 

t Ibid. " Nessuno puo far commedie publicamente nella 
corte senza licenza del consiglio reale, il quale da licenza 
alii commedianti sottoscritta dal mano del re, come si fusse 
cosa di gran consideratione. Et al presente sono 13 com- 
pagnie in tutta Spagna, et si comporta che rappresentino 
nella corte et tutta Spagna per Futile che viene alii hospitaii, 
perche ogn'uno che va a vedere li commedie da di limosina 
le tre parti di un giulio et la quarta parte alii commedianti." 
See also Bassompierre, Journal de ma vie, an. 1621, i. 537. 

J Davila, speaking of the year 1603, relates, that in order 



54 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



part of all those who claimed as it were for them- 
selves a portion of the supremacy belonging to the 
king in the Netherlands; from the jealousy that had 
subsisted for many a year against the French; still 
he carried out his views ; he concluded a peace with 
England; he recognized the independence of the 
Netherlands, and he effected a double alliance by 
marriages between the infantes of Spain and the 
children of the king of France. This helped him 
to success in another point. The Austrian family 
compact of the house of Habsburg, to which all 
other alliances had previously been postponed, was 
now pushed aside. Spain separated her own inter- 
ests from those common to the whole house. The 
imperial ambassador lost the influence he had 
before possessed ; count Khevenhiller was among 
the number of the superseded and the malcontent. 
Lerma maintained in politics also the same oppo- 
sition which he offered to the German influence at 
court. So closely were these things linked together, 
the most important items in the impulsive forces 
affecting the affairs of Europe, and considerations 
of so very personal a nature. 

And here we cannot forbear from a general sum- 
ming up of our observations. 

Antonio Perez states that he knew the man who 
then held the helm of the state, he knew Lerma 
from his youth up; a young Rojas, a first cousin of 
the latter, had been brought in the house of Coelles 
along with his wife, and he had himself been visited 
by Lerma when a prisoner. This is in itself enough 
to draw our attention to the early position and con- 
nexions of the favourite. But Perez affirms fur- 
thermore, that the individual of whom he speaks 
had been a partisan of the prince Ruy Gomez. We 
are aware that the Guzmans, the Mendozas, the 
Sylvas, and other houses, which constituted the 
party of Ruy Gomez, now rose once more, and that 
the policy of the two ministers, the prince and the 
duke, was directed to peace with Europe. Is it too 
bold a surmise that the Eboli party was revived in 
that of Lerma? If this could be distinctly authen- 
ticated it would exhibit to us the policy of the 
Spanish minister in a new bearing. As we saw the 
pacific Eboli maintain the tranquillity of all Europe, 
Flanders excepted, over which his enemies had 
obtamed influence; as we afterwards saw a warlike 
party driving out his, setting all Europe in confu- 
sion, and exhausting Spain ; so we should now have 
grounds for concluding that after the old king's 
death the second party declined, and the first rose 
again and carried its pacific views into effect. At 
all events the heads of the Lerma party were in 
immediate connexion with those of the Eboli party. 
We might even follow out this clue further. We 
might see reason to conclude that the party of Ruy 
Gomez was one of an aristocratic character, that 
which followed it popular, and the new one again 

to hinder a peace, proofs were adduced that the English 
treated the sacraments with contumely. But nothing can 
he more illustrative of the subject under consideration than 
the " Breve relacion de la vida y muerte y pios exercicios de 
Dofia Luysa de Caravajal, que en estos dias (1605) murio en 
Inglaterra." Following the example of the female converters 
of the heathen, she went to heretical London. The narrative 
is to he found in "Oracion panegirica es a saher exortativa 
y consolatoria de la muerte della illustr. Dona Isabel de 
Velasco y de Mendoza." 1616. 4. 

* Carta de Antonio Perez a un senor amigo, Cartas, i. 
p. 64 ; after the death of Philip II. 



aristocratic; that the efforts of the grandees, of the 
aristocrats, was for peace, those of the popular 
party for war. 

Lerma did not succeed in mamtaining himself in 
this position till his death. 

Setting aside all the few extant narratives on this 
subject, with which inquisitive readers are enter- 
tained on the authority of Vittorio Siri *, I find two, 
decisive as to the dismissal of the favourite. In the 
first place, it was not so certainly the work of the 
confessor Alliaga as of Cordova. Alliaga allowed 
clerical complaints to reach the king's ears. " The 
wretched condition of the poor people was, after 
all, attributable ultimately to Lerma. How could 
it fare well with the catholic kingdom, if people 
granted peace to heretics, sanctioned the rebellion, 
and acknowledged the sovereignty of heretics ?" 
Religion was just the point- on which the king was 
accessible, and through this he was acted upon by 
Fray Juan de Santa Maria Recolete, and brother 
Geronimo, a jesuit. " Even the lamb will some- 
times utter a cry when too hardly dealt with." In 
concert with Alliaga, they made an impression on 
the king. They persuaded him that he acted un- 
justly in committing the realm entirely to his 
favourite +. 

Next it befel, that a new union of the two 
lines of the house of Habsburg arose out of pre- 
tensions, which seemed destined to sever them for 
ever. Nothing is more important with regard to 
the whole body of policy, however little it be known. 
Philip III. laid claims to Hungary and Bohemia 
in full earnest, as a grandson of Maximilian II. 
Now this claim was not admitted by the archduke 
Ferdinand, afterwards emperor of Germany, who 
was regarded as the rightful heir to these posses- 
sions; but he promised under his own hand, in deep 
secresy, and with the privity only of his most con- 
fidential favourite Eggenberg, and of his chancel- 
lor Gotz, that if he attained to the government of 
those kingdoms, he would consent to resign the 
Austrian provinces in Suabia, to Spain The 
designs of the Spaniards on the Valtelline, their 
enterprises against the Palatinate, the aid they 
afforded Ferdinand II. for the re-conquest of 
Bohemia (matters all of them so momentous with 
regard to the commencement of the thirty years' 
war), are hereby, and only hereby, placed in their 
true light. There appeared a prospect of founding 
a compact Spanish hereditary dominion, which 
should directly link together Milan with the Ne- 
therlands, and so give Spanish policy a necessary 
preponderance in the affairs of Europe. These 
were schemes altogether different from Lerma's 
pacific views ; in the first place they cemented the 
union between Austria and Spain as closely as ever; 
they also exhibited themselves as rigorously catholic. 

* Del Mercurio overo Historia de correnti tempi di Vittorio 
Siri, tomo terzo, Lyon 1652. He mentions these things, the 
"privanza del duca di Lerma combattuta dal figlio," on the 
occasion of the fall of Olivarez, p. 187. But we do not find 
where he got his information. 

t The main points of all this matter are to he found in 
Gonzalo de Caspedes y Meneses, Historia del Rey Felipe IV. 
a history composed as early as 1631, by a man who had an 
opportunity of learning the truth, and who could venture to 
speak it. 

t On this point onlv Khevenhiller, Annales Ferdinan. viii. 
1099. 



OF THE PROVINCES AND 



THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 



55 



Lerma gave way before both these influences. 
He quitted the court on the 4th of October, 1618. 
He had one more quite private audience with the 
king for two hours. As he passed through the gar- 
den theprince met him to bidhim a friendly farewell. 
About five o'clock Lerma stepped into his carriage. 
He looked out once more up to the windows of the 
apartment where he had so often talked and trans- 
acted business with the king, and he made the sign 
of benediction. Just at that moment the convent 
bells tolled in memory of one of the deceased 
queens *. 

He withdrew, but not, as we see, in disgrace. 
On his journey he received affectionate letters, and 
a present of game hunted by the king himself. 
Philip III. was as much attached to him as ever; 
only he had been persuaded that it was sinful in 
him to give himself up to a favourite. 

This event produced a conflict in the king's own 
mind that embittered his life, and especially his 
last moments. He exclaimed, " O who would not 
regret to have been a monarch !" and yet he was 
so habituated to the splendour, the imposing ma- 
jesty, and the supremacy of royalty; he was heard 
to inquire, e< Where is the prince ? What is he 
doing ? He will begin to exercise the functions of 
royalty; I shall no longer stand in his way." He 
did not wholly conceal how loth he was to part 
from the pleasing habit of monarchical autho- 
rity. He was above all tormented with the fear 
of incurring eternal punishment for his abandon- 
ment of the duties of a ruler and his promotion 
of favourites. And yet these acts of favouritism 
were after all so natural to him, so strongly prompt- 
ed by the constitution of his mind ! At this very 
moment he sent and had Lerma called to him, and 
he bestowed on Uzeda, Lerma's son, who succeeded 
to his father's offices, a favour which he did not 
venture to accept +. 

Before Lerma arrived Philip had died, in a state 
of dependence on the men he condemned, yet could 
not forego; in dread of that divine tribunal, before 
which it had been his serious purpose to stand 
clear, but under the sentence of which he fell by 
necessity through the consequences of that almost 
involuntary dependence; a man whom nature had 
made too good, and too weak, and too pious, for his 
station. 



CHAPTER III. 

Of the Provinces and their administration. 

The mode of investigation we have adopted, be- 
ginning from the centre and gradually embracing 
remoter circles, has cairied us from the kings and 
those immediately about them, to their ministers 
and councils, and now places before our eyes the 
administration of the several provinces. Now this 
was no peaceful administration, the calm growth 
of time and of events, but one whereof the origin 
and the progress were marked with continual strife. 
The provinces often set themselves in vigorous op- 
position to the central power. The struggle be- 

* Chiefly from Cespedes. Some particulars from Khe- 
venhiller, ix. p. 1245. 

•)■ See Bassompierre, Khevenhiller, and particularly Davila, 
ad an. 1621. 



tween the two is the precise object of our conside- 
ration. 

No question is more important for the whole 
history of Europe, for an understanding of the 
current moment as well as of the century just 
elapsed, than the question, how came the old Ro- 
mano-Germanic state to be converted into the 
new? The matter may be put in general thus. 
Whereas the old constitution was based on indivi- 
dual and corporate immunities, which sought care- 
fully to repel every incursion of the central power; 
whereas this central power was more acted on 
than active, and even by the natural course of 
things grew weaker from epoch to epoch; whereas, 
finally, the constitution was not yet shut in within 
itself, but saw its clergy dependent on a foreign 
supreme head, and its nobility and its citizen 
classes so much at variance that each body clung 
more to its co-equals in other countries than to its 
fellow subjects at home, — how came it that in the 
succeeding times the central authority restricted or 
overthrew the liberties that opposed it, hedged in 
the state more closely, and raised itself to intrinsic 
strength and power ? 

This could not have happened every where in 
like manner, nor any where without sharp con- 
tests. 

The struggle in the Spanish empire is interest- 
ing for this reason, that we see the central autho- 
rity engaged at once with very diversified consti- 
tutions. The Aragonese, though it was their boast 
that they were more faithful to their kings than 
any other people, had yet possessed themselves of 
such peculiar rights, that although the king's pre- 
rogative was often asserted, yet it never was 
allowed free scope for action. Similar rights were 
also shared by Sicily. ' Castile and the Netherlands 
did not present such close barriers to their sove- 
reigns ; but the time was not very long past since 
John II. had been kept a prisoner in the former 
country by the barons, and Maximilian I. in the 
latter by the towns. But little active power to en- 
force their wishes remained to the sovereigns. The 
state of public affairs in Naples and Milan allowed 
the kings more influence ; but in Naples there were 
inveterate factions, threatening imminent peril 
every moment from their dissensions, whilst in the 
neighbourhood of Milan there was a strong enemy 
always on the alert to take advantage of every dis- 
content in the country to establish a footing there. 
Now seeing that not one of all these provinces was 
much disposed to recognize or further the royal 
authority, how came the possibility of establishing 
over them all a vigorous and uncompromising cen- 
tral authority, strong without and within ? Charles 
found himself in great perplexity shortly after his 
accession. Aragon made difficulties about recog- 
nizing him; Sicily expelled his viceroy; Castile 
broke out into complete insurrection. Naples va- 
cillated at this moment, and the greater part of it 
deserted him when his enemy's forces appeared on 
the frontiers. He was forced to conquer Milan 
with arms, and to keep it with arms. The insur- 
rection of Ghent showed how little the Netherlands 
were habituated to obedience. What means then 
had he recourse to, and what means did his suc- 
cessors adopt to secure themselves from insur- 
rections, and to give more stability to their autho- 
rity ? 

The question we see is twofold. First, were 



5G 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



measures successfully taken to deprive the nobles 
of the influence over the rest of the state, to make 
the clergy independent of Rome, to diminish the 
customary immunities of the towns? Secondly, how 
far was it contrived to unite in the king's hands the 
legislature, and the judicial authority, and the 
force of arms ? In a word, how was the old con- 
stitution assailed, damaged, or destroyed ? How 
was a new one established ? 

The question is identical for all the provinces; 
but as they were in themselves so various it will be 
best to examine them one after the other. 

I. Castile. 

So long as Castile was under the sway of native 
kings, or of kings naturalized by length of time, no 
country ever suffered more from intense distrac- 
tions and violent civil wars. It fell under the do- 
minion of foreign sovereigns in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. How extraordinary that from that moment 
it enjoyed profound internal tranquillity ! Nor let 
it be supposed that this was a consequence of the 
spirit of the times. The passions were hushed hi 
this country whilst most others were rent by vio- 
lent intestine wars. Even under the worst rulers 
we find among the Castilians no trace of anything 
but quiet and allegiance. 

Now to have a clear perception of how this came 
about, we must recollect that all the old Castilian 
dissensions merged ultimately in the conflict be- 
tween the grandees and the towns. This was the 
strife that during the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
turies kept all the nations of Europe in a continual 
state of warfare, always subsisting though some- 
times latent, and breaking out only from time to 
time. The mam subject of this quarrel in Castile 
was that the nobles had possessed themselves of 
the domains, and that the burthen of meeting the 
public wants out of their own property was thrown 
upon the towns. It was brought up upon every 
occasion; but when could a more likely occasion 
arise than when the succession to the throne be- 
came disputed after the death of a king ? After the 
death of Henry TV. the towns sided with the party 
of Aragon, the nobles with that of Portugal; the 
towns were victorious, and by their aid Ferdinand 
and Isabella became the sovereigns of Castile. 
After Isabella's death the towns again declared for 
Aragon, for the widower; but the nobles, who were 
now of the Austrian party, sided with the son-in- 
law of the deceased queen. The nobles carried 
their point, and Philip I. ascended the throne. 
After the unexpected demise of this young monarch 
the old strife broke out a third time. The nobles 
went so far as to offer the government to Philip's 
father, the emperor Maximilian ; it was not with- 
out vehement opposition on their part that Ferdi- 
nand, the Catholic, returned to the sovereignty of 
Castile ; it was in spite of them, and only through 
the support of the towns, that he kept his ground ; 
many powerful persons went in defiance of him to 
the Netherlands to attach themselves directly to 
the house of Austria. Was it likely that these fac- 
tions should disappear when Ferdinand died ? The 
minority of Charles V., and the mistaken measures 
of his ministers, caused the old ill-will of the towns 
to break out in open insurrection. That insurrec- 
tion was decisive. 

For a while the nobles looked on it inertly, for 



they too were somewhat offended by the predomi- 
nance of the Netherlanders at the court. But when 
the towns brought up the old subject of quarrel, 
when they bethought them of demanding a resto- 
ration of the domains, the nobles seized their arms. 
They conquered at once for themselves and for 
Charles. His interests and theirs were most closely 
associated; they re-established the authority of the 
king. The grand question now was, how would 
Charles use this decision of the strife. Both parties 
were dependent on him, the nobles as his own 
party, the towns as defeated rebels. The question 
was, would he allow the former a share in his 
authority, and the latter opportunity to re-establish 
themselves; or would he find means to hold both 
in dependence, to keep the one party down and the 
other at least in abeyance. 

The Nobles. 

It was decisive for the position of the nobles 
in latter times that there was no longer war to 
wage within the limits of Spain. They had been 
used to keep bodies of troops in their pay, and to 
retain in their service beneath their banners a 
multitude of hidalgos who had no property. This 
greatly enhanced their consequence. But now the 
kings carried on their wars far from Spain; and 
the nobles were exempted from taking part in 
these, as well by their privileges as by the wishes 
of the kings, who did not choose any longer to 
have armies in which the formula for giving orders 
ran, " Such is the command of the king and the 
condestable *." 

It was furthermore of great moment for the po- 
sition of the nobles, that they could no longer make 
their way good at court, or in the higher offices of 
state. Charles hardly ever kept his court in Spain, 
and Philip II. contrived to hold the nobles aloof. 
It was a maxim with both to entrust important 
offices only to men like Alva, whose fidelity was 
beyond all question, and to none besides +. 

Thus withdrawn from war, and from affairs of 
state, the nobles were likewise excluded from the 
national deliberations. This was in consequence of 
the proceedings of the national assembly of 1538. 
When Charles represented his necessities to the 
assembled cortes, and made known his intention 
of introducing the excise, he did not look to expe- 
rience so much opposition from his confederates 
and friends as from the other members. But the 
nobles pointedly resisted him, the condestable 
Velasco most conspicuously, though he was a de- 
cided adherent of the house of Austria. Velasco 
insisted upon it that to bear burthens was in Cas- 
tile the portion of the peasants, and that the least 
tax robbed the gentleman not only of all the im- 
munities won by the blood of his forefathers, but 
of honour itself. He brought it to pass that Charles 
was addressed with the unwelcome and almost in- 
sulting advice to mend his affairs by staying at 

* Relatione delle cose, etc. " II contestable nelli bandi 
mandava a dire: questo comandail re et il suo contestable: 
il cbe si e cominciato in Spagna ad imitatione di Francia." 

t Contarini, MS. " I grandi sono dal re tenuti bassi, et 
non da loro alcuno carico d'importanza in Spagna : et se li 
ne distribuisce alcuno fuori di questa provincia, sono brevi 
et spesso tramutati : onde non possono acquistare molta 
autorita. Sono admessi rare volte alia presenza del re per 
non dar loro reputatione." 



THE TOWNS. 



57 



home, and keeping himself within bounds. Had 
Charles persisted in his intentions, there would 
have been reason to apprehend an insurrection *. 
Seeing, however, that his demands were refused, 
he resolved at least, as Sandoval says, never again 
to assemble such powerful persons. This was the 
last general assembly of the estates that was con- 
voked. 

And now whereas the condestable had asserted 
that the nobles were bound to serve with their 
persons, but not by pecuniary contributions, they 
henceforth did neither the one nor the other, but 
became mere passive inhabitants of the state, cut 
off from all participation in public life. They fell 
back upou the enjoyment of their wealth in their 
country seats, and their somewhat Moorish palaces, 
almost windowless towards the street, built in the 
form of a quadrangle round a broad court-yard 
planted with trees +. According to an apparently 
very trustworthy enumeration of the year 1581, 
the heads of the Mendozas and Enriquez, the Pa- 
checos and Girones, that is the dukes of Infantado, 
Medina deRioseeo, Escalona, and Ossuna, possessed 
in those days each 100,000 ducats yearly income, 
and the duke of Medina Sidonia, a Guzman, 
130.000 +. Many of them had severally 30,000 
families subject to them. They maintained a 
royal expenditure on the strength of this opulence. 
Each had a kind of courtly establishment, a master 
of the household, of the hall, of the chamber, 
of the horse, a mayordomo, an accountant and 
secretary, and a crowd of pages and retainers. 
Many had sumptuous body-guards of two hun- 
dred men, and they were particularly careful to 
have well-appointed chapels. Contarini describes 
these as incredibly fine, and rich beyond descrip- 
tion. With what pomp was the lady of the 
house waited on ! Her women tendered their 
services on their knees; the page who handed 
her the cup remained kneeling till she had 
finished the draught ; even the knight of the 
highest blood whom she addressed, bent the 
knee to her as she sat §. The nobles vied with 
each other in pomp like this, and laid aside 
the warlike habits and feelings of their fore- 
fathers. 

Noting then, how the nobles were naturally in- 
clined to the king, and to his party : how they 
gradually disarmed themselves and their subjects 
by the adoption of a wholly pacific tenor of life ; 
how they next, by applying their ambition to luxury 
and pomp, ruined their circumstances and fell into 
debt, we shall clearly understand how they would 



* Soriano. Relatione di Spagna: " Tutti II signori non 
hanno altro obligo che servire il re alia guerra a sue spese 
per la difesa di Spagna solamente : et quando Carlo V. ha 
voluto rompere li suoi privilegii, hebbe tutt' i grandi eou- 
trarii et il Velasco gran contestabile piu di tutti, si ben era 
affettionato a S. M. et quello che piu d'ogn"altro le fosse 
grato. Se non si metteva silentio a questa novita, seguiva 
gran tumulto nel regno." Cf. Oracion del condestable a la 
junta de grandes. Sandoval, ii. 362. 

! Xavagero, Viaggio fatto in Spagna. 350. 

J Nota di tutti li titoladi di Spagna con le loro casate et 
rendite che tengono, dove hanno li loro stati et habitationi, 
fatta nel 1581 alle 30 di Maggio in Madrid. Informatt. 
Polit torn. it. n. 11. MS. 

§ Relatione delle cose, etc. "Parlandosi con alcune 
signore se si sta a sedere, li cavalieri, ancorche siano piu 
nobili, s'inginocchiano.'' 



: necessarily begin to fear the king, they who in 

j former times had made kings fear them*. 

The nobles of subordinate rank could now no 

I longer expect honour and advancement in their 
service. Cervantes mentions a proverb of those 
days ; u Choose the church, the sea, or the king's 
house." Many of the hidalgos, who used to serve 
under the banners of the grandees, now betook 
themselves to the Indies; others began to study in 
order to lit themselves for clerical offices ; others 
sought service under the king, in the field when 

; there was war, in the palace when there was peace. 
As the king had the patronage of the three knightly 
orders, and had so many benefices in his gift, they 
could look to him for a suitable provision for the 

! remainder of their days *f\ 

And thus was actually accomplished the purpose 
of circumscribing the class of grandees, and destroy- 
ing its influence over the rest of the state. When 

j Lerma threw the court open to them again, matters 

I were in a very different position from that in which 
they had formerly stood. Them ambition hardly 
went beyond the right of being covered in the 

! king's presence, or in his chapel, of obtaining for 
themselves the cup out of which the king had 
drunk, or, for one of their ladies, the dress worn bv 

; the queen at Easter. They looked up to the king 
as so exalted above them, that their own elevation 

] above the rest of the nation seems to have consisted 
in their eyes chiefly in the trivial marks of honour 

. he vouchsafed them, and the services he permitted 
them to discharge J. 

The Towns. 

If such was the fate of the victors in the before- 
> mentioned conflict, it may be asked, how fared it 
: with the vanquished party — the towns ? 

All the power of the towns rested on the cortes, 
and in it on the rights of granting taxes and stating 
grievances, rights that were very closely connected 
with each other, since no taxes were granted unless 
grievances were remedied. 

The earlier kings had striven to bring the cortes 
! into a state of dependence. The royal corregidor 
j long exercised a legalized influence on the elec- 
I tions. Henry IV. made an attempt directly to 
! nominate the deputies of Seville §. Ferdinand the 
; Catholic established the rule that the cortes should 
I swear to keep everything secret that was com- 
i mitted to them, and his secretary of state, Almazan, 
; had a predominant authority in the assembly of 
1505. But little, however, was definitely and per- 
, manently effected till the times of Charles V. If 
| Charles treated his rebellious subjects with cle- 
mency in other respects, still he was resolved to 
break down their legitimate power. He set about 
this without the least hesitation or pause, and he 

* Contarini: " Se ben sono ricchissimi, hanno pero in- 
tiniti debiti, che gli fanno perdere il credito. Temono S. M. 
dove quando si governassero prudentemente, sariano da essa 
per le loro forze temuti. Sono superbi et altieri oltre ogni 
credenza, vivendo otiosamente." 

f The Cortes of 1560 complain that the grandees cease "de 
tener y mautener en su casa parientes pobres y honrados." 
(Peticion 94.) 

{ Relatione delle cose, etc. "In tutti gli officii maggiori 
della casa del re sogliono servire ritolati, ancorche sia scopa- 
tore maggiore. acquator maggiore et sono tenuti degni di 
qualsivoglia gran cavaliere." 

§ Marina, Teoria de las cortes, torn. i. 190. 



58 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



employed, generally speaking, four decisive mea- 
sures to effect his purpose. 

After the victory of the grandees, after his re- 
turn on the 28th of May, 1523, Charles summoned 
the towns to a meeting in the Cortes. " But," he 
says in his warrant to the corregidor of Burgos, 
" in order that the credentials granted by this city 
may be complete, and not different from those of 
the other eiudades and villas, you shall take care 
that in every case they be conformable to the draft 
annexed hereto *." In short, he took upon him to 
presci'ibe to the towns the nature of the authority 
they were to grant their representatives. What 
then was this authority \ There is extant one of 
the credentials drawn up in accordance with his 
draft. It empowers the procuradores " to vote the 
servicio, to treat what shall be laid before them by 
his majesty, to do what his majesty shall command, 
so far as it may be for God's service and his ma- 
jesty's f." This was the first measure he adopted. 
This cortes met, furnished with no other documents 
but such as conferred on them unlimited power, with 
none but such as were approved of by the king. 

The only remaining inconvenience now arose 
from that other right of the cortes, which restricted 
even the unlimited plenipotentiaries through the 
old established routine of not granting the taxes 
till grievances had been removed. Charles com- 
manded positively, that money should be voted first, 
and grievances discussed afterwards. Though the 
assembly of 1523 insisted on it that he should im- 
mediately, and in the very first place, reply to the 
remonstrances addressed to him, and provide for 
what was required by the condition of the realm; 
though they even showed symptoms of a purpose 
to dissolve their sittings, still he persisted stedfastly 
in his determination to hear nothing, and to receive 
no remonstrance till the servicio had been voted; 
and he carried his point. This was his second 
measure. The custom he introduced now became 
a precedent, and precedent always becomes law 
when public circumstances long remain unchanged. 
Charles consented that attention should be given 
to grievances, not however, as previously, before 
the grant of supplies, but only before the close of 
the cortes %. 

This extinction of all influence on the part of the 
constituents, was not even yet enough for him ; he 
thought also, how he might keep the deputies them- 
selves hi awe, or voluntary submission. He effected 
the one purpose, by not suffering any discussion to 
take place, except in presence of his president, 
whereby every expression hostile to his interests 
became more dangerous to the deputies, than to 
himself §. The second purpose was effected by 
favours, either granted, or held out to expectation, 
which the president himself did not scruple to 
mention. It thus became a profitable thing to have 
a seat in the cortes ; and we find as early as 1534, 
a deputy paying 14,000 ducats for this advantage ||. 

These then were the four measures to which 

* Convocatoria para las Cortes de Valladolid de 1523 diri- 
gida a la ciudad de Burgos por el Rey Don Carlos. Marina, 
Teoria, iii. c. i. 177. 

t Carta de procuracion o de otorgamiento de poder que el 
ayuntamiento de Burgos dio a sus procuradores." Marina, 
ibid. 

% Transactions reported by Marina, i. 300. 

§ Marina, Teoria, i. 258, note. 

|| Don Pedro de Salazar y Mendoza; Marina, i. 213. 



Charles had recourse, in order to subdue the as- 
sembly ; they were, as we see, unambiguously and 
openly directed to this end, and they perfectly 
effected it. From the year 1538, there was no 
cortes except this of the deputies of the towns ; 
they assembled every three years, and they always 
granted what was demanded of them *. 

The successors of Charles drew the reins he 
placed in their hands somewhat tighter. In the 
year 1573, the cortes themselves complained that 
courtiers, judicial functionaries, and other persons in 
his majesty's pay, were elected, persons whose free- 
dom was small, and the only effects wrought by 
whom was dissension among the assembled mem- 
bers. In 1598, Philip III. summoned the procu- 
radores to Madrid, in order that, as he said in his 
writ, they might consider and discuss, grant, admit, 
and resolve, whatsoever it should seem good to 
resolve in that cortes f. The only uneasiness en- 
tertained was, lest they should bring with them 
any secret instructions from their constituents J. 
They were to swear before God and the blessed 
Virgin, on the holy cross and the four gospels, that 
they would place in the president's hands every 
instruction, whether already in their possession, or 
to be afterwards received by them. 

Henceforth everything was mere ceremony. 
First, the procuradores went to the castle to kiss 
the king's hand ; the latter then appeared in per- 
son in their hall of assembly ; after he had seated 
himself, and bidden them sit down, he stated to 
them first in his own words, and afterwards at 
more length through a secretary, why he had con- 
voked them. Burgos and Toledo contended, accord- 
ing to immemorial custom, which should be the first 
to reply. The king said, according to immemorial 
custom, " Toledo will do as I command; let Burgos 
speak." Burgos then begged for time to reflect. This 
was the first sitting. The second began with a call to 
the royal scribes to withdraw, and ended with a re- 
solution to petition the king for their removal. In a 
third, of course the king did not grant the petition, 
the deliberations were held in the presence of the 
scribes, and the servicio was voted. Thereupon 
they went to announce the grant to the king, who 
was gracious on the occasion, and gave each mem- 
ber his hand to kiss. And now nothing remained, 
but that a committee should present petitions affect- 
ing the community, each town those especially 
relating to it, and each member such as personally 
concerned himself. These were all laid before the 
royal council; some were granted, others not; till 
at last the president appeared, thanked the assem- 
bly in the king's name for the grant of the servicio, 
and to save the towns from incurring further ex- 
pense, declared the cortes terminated §. 

Digression respecting the range of action of the later 
cortes. 

Thus were the vanquished in the war of parties 
kept in their condition of subjugation. The cortes 

* Ordine della casa: "Le corti di Castiglia si fanno con 
molta sodisfattione di Sua Maesta. Ottiene ogni tre anni 
ogni volta cento mila ducati." 

t Convocatoria a la ciudad de Toledo para las cortes de 
Madrid. Marina, iii. 195. 

t Carta de los procuradores a su ayuntarniento, 1599. Ma- 
rina, i. 236. 

§ A treatise " Como se hacen las cortes," in Marina, Apen- 
dice, iii. n. 35. 



THE RANGE OF ACTION 



OF THE LATER CORTES. 



59 



had lost their old independence ; they had no longer 
the strength to offer any real resistance; they 
were subdued. 

But T would not take upon me to say that they 
forthwith became useless. Representative insti- 
tutions, when once they have struck root in a na- 
tion, frequently display, even under circumstances 
of impaired independence, an inward vitality that 
still works beneficially. There was left indeed to 
the cortes of Castile no right save that of present- 
ing petitions on the fulfilment of which they could 
not insist; but they made use of this right in such 
a manner, that hardly in the transactions of any 
! delegated assembly of that century shall we find 
more good intention, more comprehensive and pro- 
vident zeal, than was shown here. 

They were by no means backward in admonish- 
ing the king. How often did they remind him of 
what the welfare of the country demanded, of 
what it was entitled to by its services. If they 
petition him to diminish the cost of his household 
and his table, they call to mind the existing dearth 
of money*. In their desire to persuade him they 
sometimes produced old pledges and written pro- 
mises, made to them on former occasions of grant- 
j ing money f. They did still more. When he made 
I alienations they put him in mind of the duties by 
| which he was bound as king and liege lord J. They 
appealed to his royal conscience that he should ap- 
point none but persons of high qualities as gover- 
nadores and corregidores to watch over the conduct 
of his officers §. 

Their attention is peculiarly directed to the 
functions of the magistrates, and to the proceed- 
ings of the courts of justice. They make it matter 
of complaint if the members of the supreme courts 
are either too old, or loaded with extraneous busi- 
ness, or inaccessible || ; they are anxious that no 
family alliances should engross the audiences, that 
no o'ulor for instance should employ his son or his 
son-indaw in a commission, or promote him to advo- 
cations^!. They take it amiss if ever an alguazil 
breaks into the closed house of a peasant, or any 
other servant of a tribunal is guilty of violence of 
any kind. They require that the local councillors 
should inquire every first of the month into the 
conduct of their several courts, and if need be 
report their misconduct. They take pains to put 
an end to the collision between different jurisdic- 
tions, between the civil jurisdictions and the cleri- 

* Cortes of 1560, Petic. iii. " Los gastos de vuestro real 
estado y mesa son muy crescidos, y entendemos que con- 
viniera mucho al bien destos reynos que Vra M. los man- 
dasse moderar asi para algun rimedio de sus necessidades 
como," etc. 

t Cortes of 1558, Petic. vi. " Especialmente mande V. 
M. guardar la cedula que la Magestad imperial dio en las 
cortes de Toledo." 

I Cortes of 1560, Petic. v. " Suplicamos a V. M. que con- 
siderando la obligacion que tiene como Rey y Seiior de 
todo," etc. 

§ Cortes of 1560, Petic. xiii. "Asi conviene al descargo 
y sosiego de la real consciencia de V. M." 

|| Cortes of 1552, Petic. i. " Las personas que residen en el 
vuestro consejo real, quando alii vienen, son ya viejos y 
enfermos, y con sus indisposiciones y vejez no pueden des- 
pachar tantos negocios como al vuestro real consejo oc- 
curren." 

IT Cortes of 1552, Petic. iii. "Las partes reciben gran 
dafio en que los oydores de vuestras cbancelierias tengan 
hijos y yernos abogados." 



cal or military. If they will not suffer that the 
secular court shall molest a church, on the other 
hand they insist that every spiritual tribunal shall 
be subject to the king's pre-eminence * Besides 
these things they make it their business to resist 
sometimes the inroads of the royal councillors of 
finance on the rights of the estates, sometimes the 
domiciliary visits of the farmers of the royal salt- 
works, sometimes the extortions of the officers of 
the Mesta. In every way they labour to defend 
freedom and custom against every assault of arbi- 
trary power. 

In fact they have always before them eyes the 
whole condition of the state, its public economy, 
and its general welfare. They are not unobservant 
of the importance due to the affairs of the forests, 
the pastures, and the tillage lands. If they disap- 
prove of the practice of burning down heaths in 
order to have better pastures +, neither will they 
sanction the breaking up of pasture lands for til- 
lage. They go very minutely into these matters. 
They wish to prevent the stripping off the bark of 
oaks and cork trees. There are meadows on the 
tops of lofty mountain ridges to which cows cannot 
be driven; they take care that the grass shall not 
be lost. Innumerable are the ordinances they de- 
mand on behalf of trade and commerce. They note 
with displeasure the increase of luxury and the 
augmenting dearaess of all articles. The extrava- 
gance of the grandees and the courtiers in dress 
and furniture, the introduction of carriages and 
litters J, which it required a considerable fortune 
to keep, the disorders of the lackeys, the gambling 
with cards and dice that brought forward people 
who were seen strutting about in silk clothes with 
gold chains, though they had no fortune, had never 
filled an office, or been in any one's service, — 
with all these things they express themselves most 
strongly dissatisfied. The artisan already went so 
fine that he set an insufferable price on his work. 

They, on the other hand, directed their care to 
more real wants. They desired that there should 
be in every town a father for the orphan children 
that were left to roam about like vagabonds §, and 
that a guardian should be appointed for the poor 
who should give them work. They wished also that 
in every town two good men should every week 
inquire into the state of the prisons || ; it incensed 
them that orphan girls should be refused shelter 
and education in nunneries. They turned their 
thoughts to facilitating travelling by means of guides 
and better appointed inns. In this sedulous regard 
to things of every kind they do not overlook the 

* The same, Petic. lx. " Al juez ecclesiastico no se haze 
agravio en mandarle que otorgue y embie el processo, para 
que se vea, si haze fuerza : y esta es la preheminencia real 
de los Reyes de Espafia." 

t Cortes of 1555, Petic. lxvii. "No contentos con los 
pastos que hay en los montes, les ponen fuego para tener 
mas y acaece quemarse tres o quatro leguas de montes en 
que se recibe notable dano." 

% The same, Petic. cviii. "Para entretener o sostener un 
coche o una litera es menester una hazienda particular." 

§ Cortes of 1552, Petic. cxxii. "Muchos mozos de estar 
mal vestidos y mal tratados ninguno se quiere servir dellos 
— y se andan perdidos, porque no hay quien tenga cuydado 
dellos." They wish to have " una persona diputada que 
recoja los tales mozos y los haga yr a trabajar." 

|| Cortes of 1560, Petic. cii. " Cada semana o cada mes se 
nombren dos regidores, los quales se hallen a la visita de la 
carcel." 



GO 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



smith who has the effrontery to demand 25 or 25J 
maravedis for a light horseshoe, not so good as the 
old one which he keeps; nor the servant for whom 
his master pays the cruzada and who runs away 
from him thereupon ; nor the young girl whom her 
cautious mother leaves shut up at home, hut who goes 
meanwhile and sits down to the reading of Amadis, 
and fills her imagination with a disordered appe- 
tite for the strange incidents narrated there*. As 
for them, like men of sense they are more inclined 
to real than to fictitious history. They wish that 
above all the valour of the Spaniards should be 
known throughout the whole world, that the heroic 
deeds of their forefathers should be held up as 
examples to existing and future generations. Never 
perhaps was a historian more urgently commended 
to his sovereign than was Florian de Ocampo com- 
mended by them to Philip II. f 

Nor can it be said that their suggestions passed 
unregarded. The king often replied to them, " We 
hold what you require to be just," or " Our coun- 
cil shall weigh the matter," or " We have given 
orders that your advice be acted on." Often the 
petition was forthwith converted into law. Philip II. 
probably ratified but too often the plans thrown 
out in such documents respecting trade and com- 
merce ; but it was not so with respect to his pre- 
rogatives, his revenues, and the augmentation of 
the taxes. His answer to the supplications of the 
cortes was very frequently that the existing law 
was satisfactory ; no innovation was admissible. 

And so the assembly of the cortes may be re- 
garded as a council which the towns, in remem- 
brance of older and more important rights, sent 
every three years at their own cost to the king, that 
it might help to repeal abuses, and to exercise con- 
trol over the state functionaries ; that it might 
take cognizance of ancient custom and make pro- 
posals for the general good. Care was taken that 
this should not in any way prejudice the supreme 
power ; all decisions rested solely with the king. 
He was not a little helped, however, by this insti- 
tution in keeping his officers in check, and in 
maintaining a complete authority over them. 

The Clergy. 

We return to the circumstances of the three 
estates. The cortes were now instrumental in 
making the nation bear the burthen the king thought 
it good to lay upon it. Two main pillars of the an- 
cient constitution were overthrown. Did the king 
succeed in prostrating the third, the clergy ? Or 
did the profound reverence for the outward forms 
of worship displayed by these kings, a reverence 
which made it with them the first of duties to spread 
abroad the sway of the pope, did this enable them 

* Cortes of 1558, Petic. cvii. Illustrative also of Don 
Quixote. " Como los mancebos y las donzellas por su ocio- 
sitad se principalmente ocupan in aquello (leer libros de 
mentiras y vanidades), desvanecense y afncionanse en cierta 
manera a los casos que leen en aquellos libros haver acon- 
tescido, anzi de amores como de armas y otras vanidades : y 
afficionados, quando se otFrece algun caso semejante, danse 
a el mas a rienda suelta que si no lo huviessen leydo." 

t The same, Petic. cxxviii. " Movido de su natural in- 
clinacion ha escripto veynto y ocho anos en la chronica de 
Espana. Con gran trabajo de su persona y espiritu las ha 
recopilado et teniendo lugar las sacara a luz : de que a estos 
reynos se seguira notable beneficio." 



to allow the clergy a certain degree of independ- 
ence ? 

The clergy by all means enjoyed an easy and 
even a pleasant existence. In Toledo they enjoyed 
such ample revenues that they were not only pro- 
prietors of the first houses, but were besides tanta- 
mount to lords of the city; they fared every day of 
the best, and no one found fault with them. The 
monks of Guadelup derived alms to the amount of 
1 50,000 ducats yearly from their miraculous image. 
Their convent was surrounded with beautiful gar- 
dens ; they had excellent wine-cellars excavated, 
some for earthen, others for wooden vessels ; their 
residence was provided with all the comforts of 
life, and they wanted nothing from without. The 
convents were above all frequently remarkable for 
their beautiful and delightful situations. Navagero 
is full of enthusiasm about the Carthusian monastery 
of Seville. How beautiful was its site, at the foot 
of the most charming hills clad with orange groves; 
in the midst of gardens full of pomegranate trees, 
whence the breezes wafted the good fathers the 
sweetest perfumes all the summer through ; before 
it the great river, and all around the most luxu- 
riant fields. " These brethren," he says, " have 
climbed a good step in advance on the way hence 
to Paradise *." 

But it does not follow from this that the clergy 
possessed independence, or an influence of their 
own proper strength on the government. The very 
foremost consideration with regard to their rela- 
tion to the state is, in whose hands lay the right of 
collation to benefices % Ferdinand the Catholic had 
obtained from the popes, for the kings of Spain, 
the privilege of nominating their own clergy *f«. So 
unlimitedly did Philip exercise this right, that he 
devised his own maxims of ecclesiastical adminis- 
tration. He made a distinction as to districts. He 
placed theologians in the mountains of the Asturias 
and in Galicia, for there doctrine was wanted ; to 
Estremadura and Andalusia, where the people 
loved litigation, he sent canonists ; and he sent 
monks to the Indies, because these men usually 
did the most effective service in converting the 
natives. In the disposal of appointments he looked 
by all means to birth, and to the recommendations 
of his ministers and of approved men ; but his 
usual practice was, to try his men first in humbler 
employments before he advanced them to higher ; 
and above all, if he anywhere discovered a poor 
monk distinguished for erudition and irreproach- 
able conduct, or a bold man, like that Quiroga who 
would rather be excommunicated than receive 
bulls of the pope that were contrary to rule, he 
was sure to promote them. The one class gave 
his administration credit in the eyes of the people ; 
the other lent it intrinsic energy. He made Qui- 
roga the first ecclesiastic in the kingdom, viz. arch- 
bishop of Toledo. And as in all these matters he 

* Navagero ; Viaggio, 353—359. 

t Contarini : " Ha il re il nominatione di tutti i beneficii 
di Spagna et li distribuisce a chi piu li aggrada, tramutando 
anco uno istesso da un vescovado a l'altro a suo beneplacito." 
See, above all, the law of Philip II. of the year 1565 : "Por 
derecho y antigua costumbre y justos titulos y concessiones 
apostolicas somos patron de todas las iglesias cathedrales de 
estos reynos, y nos pertenesce la presentacion de los Arzobis- 
pados y Obispados y Prelacias y Abadias consistoriales de 
estos reynos, aunque vaquen en corte de Roma." Nueva 
Recopilacion, lib. i. tit. vi. ley i. p. 36. 



THE INQUISITION. 



01 



proceeded entirely after his own good pleasure, it 
was satisfactory to him to have this acknowledged, 
to see the clergy, after their nomination to an ap- 
pointment, present themselves before him and re- 
turn thanks *. 

Under these circumstances, it was not possible 
but that archbishops, bishops, and the whole clergy 
should hang upon him to whom they owed all they 
enjoyed, and to whom they looked for their future 
fortunes. Instead of adhering to Rome, which 
they could not support against the king, they clung 
to the king, who had the power and the inclination 
to support them against Rome. They were their 
master's most obedient subjects ; they bore their 
part cheerfully in the burthens of the state. It was 
the common opinion that no clergy in the world was 
more burthened than they It was affirmed in 
1629 that a full third of the ecclesiastical revenues 
fell into the king's hands, and that a single prelate 
contributed to the king as much as 2000 peasants 
or 4000 gentlemen J. 

New Constitution. 

We see the third pillar too of the old institu- 
tions broken : let us now inquire how far the 
kings succeeded in founding a new constitution on 
the ruins of the old. 

Now we have already perceived how the elements 
of the old state co-operated to the formation of the 
new one. The removal of the grandees from affairs 
of state, and from war, obliged the inferior nobility 
to attach themselves entirely to the king. As the 
nation had no other organ through which it could 
express its feelings than the procuradores of the 
towns in the cortes, the subjection of these men 
became a matter of great moment with regard to 
the general obedience of the subject. The clergy, 
who were linked to the king as they had previously 
been to the pope himself, now laboured as strenu- 
ously for the former as they had done for the latter. 
From the self-same three estates, which had of old 
offered resistance to the kings, that servility and 
that impassibility now originated which so distin- 
guished Castile in this century. 

But the king had still other and wholly different 
means for effecting and securing this state of things. 
The new constitution was based essentially on three 
things, the standing army, the judicial functions, 
and the taxes. The first gave the central autho- 
rity plenary power against its domestic and foreign 
enemies; the second kept the people in dependence 
unawares; by means of the third, the whole course 
of private life, every property and calling, were ren- 
dered subservient to the community or to the sove- 
reign. The subject of the taxes involves the con- 
sideration of the whole administration, and of the 
condition of the people, and will be treated of in a 
separate section : the character of the cortes shows 
at once, that the taxes were to be paid by the peo- 
ple. The standing army was supported by these 

* Cabrera, lib. xi. cap. xi. p. 890. 

t Contarini : " Tutti i prelati sono obedientissimi a S. M. 
si per lo debito della gratia come per la speranza delle future. 
Quando hanno bisogno di qualche ajuto, non ricorrono a 
Roma, ma a S. M.; et cosi anco fanno quando da Roma sono 
molestati di qualche cosa, che ricorrono subito al re, che gli 
protegge et favorisce : onde gli e facile di cavar buona somma 
de danari da tutti quei prelati." 

t Moro, Relat. della Spagna, MS. 



funds. Though these kings had such considerable 
armies in their other territories, and frequently in 
the field, that they might have considered them- 
selves abundantly secured by them, still Castile too 
was filled with troops of its own. First of all, 
hommes d'armes were introduced after the prece- 
dent of France, and after the immediate example 
of the Burgundian house. The twenty-two com- 
panies of these, with the 5000 light horsemen *, 
rendered necessary by their peculiar constitution, 
formed the guards of Castile ; a body of sol- 
diers deemed so important, that it was thought 
hazardous to entrust the command of them to a 
private individual, and that even so unwarlike a 
monarch as Philip sometimes bestirred himself to 
review them. It was frequently no slight burthen 
to the several localities to furnish the contributions 
in aid of the pay of these men, or to afford them 
quarters f. Besides these, there were 1 600 horse- 
men with targets and javelins, who continually pa- 
trolled the coasts of the Mediterranean, to ward off 
all danger of the corsairs. Fuenterrabia and Pam- 
plona, the four mountain towns on the sea, Cadiz, 
Carthagena, and other places, had their garrisons. 
The king had body guards round his person, a Ger- 
man, a Spanish, and a third, after the manner of 
his ancestors, composed of Burgundian nobles. 
This force, perhaps not strong enough to repel a 
foreign foe, (Philip II. established in addition a 
militia of 30,000 men,) was yet sufficient instantly 
to smother every attempt at resistance from within. 

The administration of justice likewise contributed 
not a little to the preservation of tranquillity. I will 
not enumerate the tribunals and audiences which 
depended on the council of Castile, nor detail the 
manner in which the executive and the superin- 
tendence of the judicial institutions Avere combined 
in the latter. Strict equity was insisted on, and 
the meanest man could disarm his oppressor with 
the words, " I will go to the king." The chief 
thing we have to treat of is the tribunal most 
peculiarly Spanish, the court of the inquisition. 

The Inquisition. 

Llorente has given us a famous book on this sub- 
ject, and if I presume to say anything that contra- 
venes the opinion of such a predecessor, let my 
excuse be, that this well-informed author wrote in 
the interest of the afrancesados, of the Josephine 
administration. In that interest he disputes the 
immunities of the Basque provinces, though these 
were hardly to be denied. In that interest too, 
he looks on the inquisition as an usurpation of the 
spiritual over the secular authority. Nevertheless, 
if I am not altogether in error, it appears, even 
from his own facts, that the inquisition was a royal 
court of judicature, only armed with ecclesiastical 
weapons. 

In the first place, the inquisitors were royal offi- 
cers. The kings had the right of appointing and 
dismissing them % ; the kings had among the vari- 

* Contarini : " 5000 cavalli obligati armati alia leggiera di 
lancia et targa, che ne per esperienza ne per la qualita de 
cavalli (che per il piu sono debili et tristi) e di molta consi- 
derazione." 

t Transactions of the Cortes in 1619 in Davila, Felipe III. 
ad h. a. 

I Bull of incorporation, Llorente, Histoire de l'lnquisi- 
tion, i. 145. 



62 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



ous councils at their court, a council likewise of 
the inquisition; the courts of the inquisition were 
subject, like other magistracies, to royal visitors* ; 
the same men were often assessors therein, who 
sat in the supreme court of Castile f. It was to no 
purpose Ximenes scrupled to admit into the coun- 
cil of the inquisition a layman nominated by Fer- 
dinand the Catholic. " Do you not know," said the 
king, " that if this tribunal possesses a jurisdiction, 
it is from the king it derives it J." If Llorente 
speaks of a suit attempted against Charles V. and 
Philip II. themselves §, still it is plain from his 
own statement (for to this we always refer for our 
information), that Paul IV., then in open war with 
the emperor and the king, proposed some such ex- 
periment, — but not that the suggestion was put in 
force, or that such an attempt was ever made. 

In the second place, all the profit of the confis- 
cations by this court accrued to the king. These 
were carried out in a very unsparing manner. 
Claim was laid even to the presents which had 
been made by the condemned long before their 
trials, and to the portions they had bestowed on 
their daughters ||. Though the fueros of Aragon 
forbade the king to confiscate the property of his 
convicted subjects, he deemed himself exalted above 
the law in matters pertaining to this court % It 
was calculated iu the year 1522, that the property 
of those alone who had voluntarily pleaded guilty 
of heresy, had even in the short period since the 
accession of Charles brought him in upwards of a 
million of ducats**. The proceeds of these confis- 
cations formed a sort of regular income for the 
royal exchequer. It was even believed and as- 
serted from the beginning, that the kings had been 
moved to establish and countenance this tribunal 
more by their hankering after the wealth it confis- 
cated, than by motives of piety ff . 

In the third place, it was the inquisition, and the 
inquisition alone, that completely shut out all ex- 
traneous interference with the state : the sovereign 
had now at his disposal a tribunal from which no 
grandee, no archbishop, could withdraw himself. 
Foreigners were particularly struck with this fact. 
" The inquisition," says Segni, " was invented to 
rob the wealthy of their property and the powerful 
of their consequence." As Charles knew no other 
means of bringing certain punishment upon the 
bishops who had taken part in the insurrection of 
the comunidades, he chose to have them judged 
by the inquisition. Philip II., despairing of being 
able to punish Antonio Perez, called in the aid of 
the inquisition. For open heresy was not the only 
question it had to try. Already Ferdinand had 
felt the advantages it afforded, and had enlarged 
the sphere of its activity. Under Philip it inter- 
fered in matters of trade and of the arts, of cus- 

* For an example see La Nuza, Historias de Aragon, ii. 
p. 11. 

t The Cortes of 1560 complained of this: " Y otros del 
dicho real consejo son assessores y consultores en el consejo 
de la santa inquisicion." Peticion vii. 

I The king's words in Llorente, ii. 498. 

§ Ibid. ii. 183. 

|| Fragment d'un ouvrage espagnol: Del regimento de 
Principes, Llorente, App. iv. 409. 

IT Lettre de Jean de Lucena au roi Ferdinand; ib. 376. 

** Lettre de Manuel a Charles quint, Llorente, i. 399. 

tt Literae Sixti IV. ad Ferdinandum et Isabellam, Llorente, 
App. iv. 354. 



toms and marine. How much further could it go 
when it pronounced it heresy to dispose of horses 
or munition to France * ? 

Accordingly, as this court derived its authority 
from the king, it directed it to the advantage of the 
royal power. It was a portion of those spolia of 
the ecclesiastical power, by which the government 
was made mighty, such as the administration of 
the grand masterships, and the appointment of the 
bishops. It was in spirit, and tendency above all, 
a political institution. The pope had an interest in 
thwarting it, and he did so as often as he could. 
But the king had an interest in constantly uphold- 
ing it +. _ 

Now if the inquisition did mischief enough, as 
there is no denying, this is not to be ascribed solely 
to the government. Peculiar propensities of the 
Spanish mind particularly favoured the establish- 
ment and the perversion of the inquisition. 

First, there were the prejudices with regard to 
the distinction between pure and base blood, which 
had taken hold of the Spaniards to an extent un- 
equalled in any other nation. Proof of pure blood 
was required of candidates for most offices, and it was 
even thought a great mitigation, when the search 
was not carried back further than to the fourth 
generation J. But, besides, the continual wars with 
the Moors, and the hostility to the Jews who were 
particularly numerous in that kingdom, had so 
blended together the pride of birth and a certain 
religious pride, that the two feelings seemed but 
one. Not to be of pure catholic faith seemed to 
this people as much a vice of blood as of mind. 
Hence the value they attached to pure blood (lim- 
pieza); hence the contempt that was mingled with 
their hatred of unbelievers and heretics ; hence 
are to be explained the caste-like distinctions they 
introduced into America, and the religious wars to 
which they applied themselves in Europe. Now, 
as the inquisition was, as it were, a weapon of the 
pure blood against the tainted, of the children of 
Germanic and Latin Christians against the progeny 
of Jews and Moors, it found the strongest support 
in the feelings of the nation. The sons of the 
convicted had no claim to a place in a royal coun- 
cil, or in a town corporation; no, nor even their 
grandsons §. Nay, the man who had been merely 
accused before the inquisition was by the very fact 
dishonoured; no good Spaniard would have given 
him his daughter in marriage ||. 

This peculiarity of the nation was undoubtedly 

* Segni, Storia Fiorentina, 335. Llorente, i. 402 ; ii. 397 ; 
iv. 123. We learn from the Lettres du Nonce Visconti, an 
1563, ii. 282, that Rome attributed to the introduction of the 
Spanish inquisition " gran diminuzione dell' autorita di 
questa santa sede." 

+ Tiepolo : " L'inquisitione in questi luoghi e il maggior 
mezzo di tutti li altri di contener quel regno in quiete, cosa 
che conosciuta dal Signor re, per essa tende quanto piu pud 
non solo a conservar, ma ad ampliar quanto e possibile la 
giurisdittione di quel tribunale." 

% Petition of the Cortes of 1532, in Davila, Felipe III. 211. 

§ The Cortes of 1522, Petic. liii. complain that this law- 
was sometimes violated. " En lo qual," they say, " la repub- 
lica recibe gran detrimento et es cosa rezia que tales per- 
sonas tengan tales officios." 

|| Sometimes an inquisitor held another office, and it was 
sure to be the case that he made his arrests in the former 
capacity. The Cortes complain of this : " Ainsi se infaman 
muchas personas." Even this was considered an infamy. 
The same, Petic. lix. 



ARAGON— OLD 



mightily subservient to the introduction of the 
inquisition, and to its early efficiency. 

But if we take into account the abuses that grew 
out of the statute of limpieza, — how enemies at- 
tacked each other before the tribunals with false 
testimony respecting their ancestors, so that Gabriel 
Cimbron says *, there was no such thing as noble 
birth or pure blood in Spain, save such as consisted 
in having good friends or malicious enemies; — we 
shall then find it easier to explain also the abuses 
connected with the inquisition. In that court the 
custom had been introduced in the beginning to 
conceal the names of the witnesses, in order to pro- 
tect them from persecution, when the persons ac- 
cused were rich and powerful. Thus were the most 
convenient opportunities afforded those whose de- 
sires were to be gratified by revenge, and above all 
by secret revenge. How frequently did it happen 
after the supposed culprits had been long con- 
demned and executed, and their children robbed of 
their inheritance and reduced to beggary, that 
their accusers confessed, on their deathbeds, they 
had borne false witness. 

If such an institution could hardly be established 
in any nation without the utmost danger, assuredly 
it was surpassingly perilous in a nation, the families 
of which bore to each other a rankling, inveterate, 
and immemorial enmity, and scorned no means of 
doing each other the utmost mischief. 

Thus did the inquisition, by its secret proceed- 
ings, by the severity of its measures, by the exten- 
sion of its rights over persons of every rank, and 
over cases of the most diversified kinds, by the 
religious pomp with which it surrounded itself, and 
by the gratification it afforded to the passions of 
petty souls, become a tribunal of terror that invested 
him in whose control it was with immense power 
over the nation. 

The obstacles removed, which the old constitu- 
tion had presented to the sovereign, the royal 
power firmly established by means of taxes and 
soldiers, it was after all the inquisition by which 
the unconditional authority of the government was 
completed. 

II. Aragon. 

But had the inquisition singly the power of esta- 
blishing despotism % 

It was likewise introduced into Aragon, and yet 
that kingdom preserved its original freedom unim- 
paired, though so neighbouring to Castile, and 
though so closely connected therewith by the origi- 
nal unity of the nation, and by the existing unity 
of the government. 

Old Constitution. 

The fundamental principle of the constitution 
of Aragon was that the king was entitled to ex- 
ercise only a very trifling influence on internal 
affairs. He was not at liberty to delegate his au- 
thority to any but a native. When he would hold 
the cortes it was indispensable that he himself, or 
at least a prince of the blood should be present, to 
open the proceedings and to close them again with 
the solemnities of homage +. Nevertheless, his part 

* Gabriel Cimbron de Avila, quoted by Davila, 212. 
t Blancas, Modo de proceder en Cortes, ciii. "Quien 
puede llainar Cortes." 



CONSTITUTION. 63 



in the cortes was very limited. His proposals could 
never stand good if there was but a single vote 
against them*. Individuals could always arrest 
the course of the proceedings by presenting a 
memorial of grievances, or as they were called 
greuges, a word of fear for the Aragonese sove- 
reigns ; and till these grievances were remedied 
the sittings could not be closed. Especial care was 
taken to render the administration of justice inde- 
pendent of the royal will. There were royal tribu- 
nals indeed, and Philip II. established a new cri- 
minal court, but these were subordinate to the 
others; first to the Justicia and to its lugartenientes, 
whose duty it was, at the words " Avi fuerza," to 
aid all who thought themselves dealt with by might 
rather than right, and who were bound to hear the 
appeal of a condemned man, though the rope were 
actually round his neck. It was their office to in- 
vestigate the proceedings of the former court. The 
justicia again was responsible to four inspectors, 
who heard complaints against it, and to a represen- 
tative body of seventeen +. The whole constitution 
was secured by an express law that no foreign sol- 
dier should be permitted to set foot on the soil 
Aragon was a republic, detached and shut up 
within itself, having at its head a king, but a king 
with very limited prerogatives. 

It was inevitable in the period before us that this 
state of things should have been productive of nu- 
merous disputes. The king saw the supplies, for 
which alone he had any interest in holding a cortes, 
swallowed up immediately by the expenses of his 
journey, and of the long stay to which he was 
obliged in consequence of the greuges §. For a long 
while Philip II. forbore from holding cortes ; the 
Aragonese paid no servicio ; under these circum- 
stances it was almost as though the country was 
without a king; the laws were administered with- 
out him, and civil affairs proceeded in their 
usual course. It is true indeed that no proper 
national peace obtained in the kingdom; we find 
count Martin of Aragon engaged in a sanguinary 
feud with his county of Ribagorza, which had ex- 
pelled him and emancipated itself ; we find the 
Montaneses of the Tena valley in arms against the 
Moriscoes of Codo: but the king did not interpose 
in these matters, even admitting, as some asserted, 
that he encouraged the Ribagorzans; nor could he 
do so, his hands being tied by the constitution ||. 
The inquisition met with peculiar resistance in this 
kingdom. Persons could escape from the authority 
of this as well as of every other royal court by ma- 
nifesting, as the expression was, that is appealing 
for aid to the justicia. That aid was readily grant- 
ed ; the national court sometimes assigned the 
whole town of Saragossa as a prison to those who 
seemed already within the clutches of the inquisi- 

* Geronymo Martel, Forma de celebrar Cortes, c. ii. "Es 
necessario que concuerde la voluntad del Rey con todos los 
que intervienen en cortes, sin que falta un solo voto." 

t Blancas, Rerum Aragonicarum Commentarii, ap. Schott, 
Hispania illustrata, i. 747. 

J Fuero segundo, De generalibus privilegiis regni Arago- 
num. Perez, Relat. 88. 

§ Sommaria dell' ordine, MS, " Sua maesta avanza poco, 
percbe si danno 600,000 ducati, quali spende prima clie si 
parta, ne viaggi et perche convien stare molto tempo." 

|| Blasco de La Nuza, Historias ecclesiasticas y seculares 
de Aragon desde 1556 hasta el 1618, torn. ii. lib. i. cap. xx. 
cap. xxxvi. 



I — 

64 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



tion, and they were to be seen walking about in 
freedom as though nothing were the matter. Upon 
this the inquisition would excommunicate the 
lugartementes who had robbed it of its prisoners ; 
but the Aragonese did not give way for all that. 
They sent to Rome, and did not spare 30.000 
ducats to procure a revocation of the excommuni- 
cation : what a triumph for them to obtain it ! Still 
they were incessant in their complaints of the usur- 
pations of the inquisition, and in the cortes of 1585 
they forced the king to promise them a speedy in- 
quiry into the matter*. 

Much as the Aragonese boasted of their position 
with respect to the king, proudly as they dwelt on the 
words of Peter III. f, " If there be vassals faith- 
ful to their lord, it is you; for you are not under a 
tyrannical dominion, but endowed with many im- 
munities; I can distinguish you from other vassals," 
— words which they maintained were still applica- 
ble to them ; nevertheless there existed an antagon- 
ism between the government and the estates, which 
only waited for an occasion to break out into open 
strife %. Queen Isabella is stated to have said in 
her day she only wished the Aragonese would re- 
bel, that there might be an opportunity of having 
recourse to arms against them, and changing their 
constitution. When disputes again arose between 
the royal functionaries and those of the kingdom, 
the duke of Alva exclaimed, " If the king would 
give me only four thousand men, four thousand of 
those I have myself disciplined, I would soon lay 
low the immunities of Aragon §." 

Revolution. 

While things were in this inauspicious state the 
affair of Antonio Perez occurred. As a native 
of Aragon he took refuge under the immunities of 
the Aragonese constitution, and they protected him. 
But was the king to allow his rebellious subject an 
asylum in the midst of his own dominions, where 
he could not but be irksome to him ? He left no 
means untried to obtain the condemnation and sur- 
render of Perez. When all failed he had recourse 
to the inquisition, which then arrested on a charge 
of heresy the man who might in case of the worst 
be tried for treason. Upon this the people of 
Aragon called to mind all the injuries they had sus- 
tained at the hands of that tribunal ; " Besides it 
was accepted only for a hundred years, and they 
are now elapsed :" accordingly they broke into 
open insurrection and rescued Perez ||. If the 
king thought himself justified in putting down the 
insurrection by force of arms, the people on their 
part thought they were justified in resisting force 
with force. The Aragonese banner of St. George 
waved once more in the field. But whether it was 
from want of experience, or from cowardice, or 
from treachery, their resistance was almost no- 

* Llorente. 

t Molinus (Blanca's Commentarii, p. 763) appears in error 
when he names Martin 

I Tommaso Contarini : " Quando per awentura il re pro- 
curava moderare alcuna di quelle leggi (Contarini charges 
the Aragonese nobility -with 'infiniti sforzi,' and 'cose mon- 
struose,') tutto il populo et tutti li grandi si sollevano sotto 
pretesto di voler difender la liberta loro." 

§ Soriano, Relatione di Spagna, 7. 

|| See the account given by Perez himself, 



thing *. The Castilians marched into Saragossa 
almost without a check. The justicia, that bulwark 
of Aragonese liberty, now met its doom; the chiefs 
of the people perished in prison, many fled the 
country. The king summoned the cortes to Tarra- 
gona, in order to modify the constitution, whilst the 
terror of arms still prevailed. 

Spittler has said, and many have repeated it by 
rote after him, that the Aragonese immunities were 
left untouched on that occasion. But this opinion 
cannot rest on a general view of the facts; they are 
too plain and unambiguous. 

The cortes proceeded in violation of the law. 
They were not opened either by the king or by any 
one of royal blood, but by a Chinchon, archbishop 
of Saragossa, to whose family was justly imputed 
a certain share in the measures adopted by the 
king. The Aragonese were vanquished, terrified, 
prostrated ; they dared not contradict him. As if 
it had been purposely intended to set an example 
of the breach of the law, the archbishop suspended 
the proceedings in the midst, and held a court of 
homage to confirm what had been so far done. 
Things were pushed still further. The king was 
consulted by letter in dubious cases, and his deci- 
sion was adopted. " A thing never heard of, a 
thing never deemed possible," exclaims Martel ; 
a the king was not only not in the cortes, but even 
not in the kingdom. From the Hieronymite convent 
of our Lady of Estrella, in Castile, the king issued 
his orders, which were solemnly communicated to the 
officers of the justicia, and enrolled in the records f . 
The maintenance of other immunities was now not 
to be thought of, and the thirty-first article of the 
resolutions of the cortes expressly declared that for 
the future it should free to the king and his successors 
to nominate viceroys, whether native or alien £. 

Next those laws were overthrown which bore 
upon the king's influence over the cortes. A defi- 
nite time was fixed for hearing grievances, after 
which no more were to be listened to §. The force 
of an opposing vote was abolished with respect to 
most cases, and the voice of the majority declared 
valid. " The majority of every estate constitutes 
the estate; even if a whole estate be wanting, this 
shall have no influence upon the course of the 
cortes, provided the same shall have been duly 
summoned according to law ||." This was the more 
important as the king possessed great and legitimate 
rights with regard to the convocation of the assem- 
bly. Only eight titled houses of the grandees, not 
a single one of the lesser nobility or of the hidalgos, 
could claim to possess a seat and a vote; the king 
summoned them at his pleasure^. Some of the 
towns had an unconditional right; but the king 

* "A pena furono a vista dell' inimico, che senza essere 

assaliti si voltarono tutti in fuga Forse sariano anco 

restati superiori, se fossero stati cosi bravi nel defendersi 

como furono arditi nel ribellarsi Hora S. M. ha 

scemata et riunata la liberta loro, castigando tutti i loro capi 
con bandi, con prigione perpetue, con torgli la vita." 

t Martel, Forma de proceder en Cortes, c. vi. 

X La Nuza, Historias, p. 325, where there are also some 
limitations. 

§ Fuero: "El tempo dentro el qual se han de dar los 
greuges." Martel, p. 56. 

|| Fuero: "Que en las cortes la mayor parte de cada braco 
haga braco." Martel, c. ii. 

1T Martel: " Los hidalgos no pueden alegar possession de 
aver de ser llamados," etc. 



SICILY. 



might add as he pleased to their numbers. Now 
if the old fuero was hased upon this usage, for 
without it it would have been absurd to make com- 
plete unanimity an indispensable condition of every 
measure, it is likewise plain that the validity of the 
majority of votes involved in it a kind of command. 
For this reason the practice was still retained, for 
certain cases, of requiring an unanimous vote. 

The tribunal was next taken in hand. Philip 
did not indeed change its form, but he changed its 
essence. The independence of the court sprang 
from the manner of appointing the lugartenientes 
of the justicia, and their acting deputies, for they 
themselves were usually gentlemen not versed in 
legal studies. These functionaries were nominated 
by the cortes directly, or in such a way that out of 
those proposed to him the king selected those who 
were to fill the existing and the future vacancies 
respectively. Philip still continued to allow them 
a certain part in this choice, but such a one as was 
almost ridiculous. He settled that he should him- 
self put nine eligible persons in nomination; from 
these the cortes made a selection no doubt, but a 
selection of eight, so that they had only the right 
of rejecting one; and of these eight the king ap- 
pointed five to act at once, and three to fill up va- 
cancies*. This was in fact no whit better than 
though he had named his own men absolutely. He 
also suffered the four inspectors to continue, and 
the court of the seventeen, though he diminished 
the number, and he took them alternately from the 
four estates, but the real nomination was entirely 
with himself f. The independence of the courts 
was wholly destroyed; and as they were thenceforth 
all royal courts just like the inquisition, there were 
few collisions afterwards between them and the 
latter ; they and it had but one common interest, 
and that was the king's. 

To perfect these arrangements Philip converted 
the Alfajeria, near Saragossa, where the inquisition 
was established, into a fortress commanding the 
town %. 

Thus the king successfully made the most deci- 
sive inroads upon the old rights of Aragon. The 
national tribunal was subjected to him, the legisla- 
tive assembly exposed to his influence, the country 
opened to his soldiers, wider scope given to the in- 
quisition, and great rents made in the compact 
body of the old constitution. But everything can- 
not be done at once; there still remained many 
privileges unimpaired, and the old unanimity of all 
the members of the cortes was still required even 
for the grant of new taxes. The Aragonese had 
still before them, for a future day, another open 
struggle against the new constitution. 

III. Slc'dij. 

The example of Sicily shows how arduous such 
a struggle continued even yet to be for the royal 
authority. 

There the king had two thousand five hundred 
Spanish troops; there the inquisition was in opera- 
tion; the administration of justice was for the most 

* Martel, p. 90 : " Nominacion de personas per lugarte- 
nientes del justicia de Aragon." 
+ La Xuza, Historias, p. 319. 

t Contarini: " . . . . Citadella che si edifica nel luogo 
dove era situato il palazzo della inquisitione, dal quale per 
essere in luogo eminente si dominera tutta Siragossa." 



part under the king's control; he was therefore 
further advanced by two important aids to des- 
potism, than he had been in Aragon previously to 
the late events there : yet was he far from being 
absolute; no where was the situation of his vice- 
roys more difficult. 

For, although the new system of government 
had gained some footing in Sicily, still the old feu- 
dal constitution subsisted in unbroken strength. 
The towns boasted that they had accepted the 
Aragonese kings voluntarily and by treaty, nay 
that they had paved the way for them to the king- 
dom. Messina deduced its rights from the first 
arrival in the island, not of the Normans merely, 
but of the Romans'* ; and in fact it possessed, in the 
opinion of competent judges, greater prerogatives 
than any city in the whole world subject to a so- 
vereign. Those of Palermo were not much infe- 
rior; but besides these it was proud of its then 
flourishing condition, and of the residence of the 
viceroy within its walls: it laid claim to paramount 
consequence in the kingdom f. If these two cities 
were sometimes jealous of each other, they were 
both still more so of the supremacy of the Span- 
iards. How often did Messina point its cannons 
against the ships in which Spaniards were ap- 
proaching it ! How often did Palermo revolt against 
the inquisition ! If the towns had opened the coun- 
try to the kings, the barons had helped them to 
conquer it. Capmany gives a list of fifty baronial 
families of Sicily, all of Catalonian blood £. They 
clung with jealous pertinacity to the claims to 
which they were thus entitled ; they were also 
strong through armed feudal service. Lastly, the 
clergy were rich and powerful; many of them were 
Spaniards, and these were so much the prouder. 
The circumstances of the Monarchia Simla (for 
the Sicilian kings asserted that they were the 
pope's born legates), to the pretensions of which 
the pope yielded, but with reluctance, made him 
their natural protector, and they had frequently 
just grounds for appealing to him in consequence 
of the abuses made of the royal rights §. 

Now, when these three estates, severally so 
powerful, assembled in parliament, which happen- 
ed in their case as well as in that of the cortes of 
Aragon and Castile, only that they might vote a 
servicio ||, it was no very easy thing for the vice- 
roy to obtain this. The barons indeed were very 
ready to vote what they were not liable to pay; their 
vassals paid for them, and remained in consequence 
only so much the weaker and more submissive. 
But the prelates who were called on to open their 

* Ragazzoni, Relatione della Sicilia : " Messina adduce li 
privilegii che gli furono concessi dal Senato Romano." 
Roger's Charter to Messina, an. 1229, in Raumer's Hohen- 
staufen, iii. 435. 

t Ragazzoni : " Per la verita Palermo per la grandezza di 
popolo, che fa intorno 100,000 anime, per ricchezze et per 
nohilta, habitandovi quasi tutti li signori del regno, et per la 
continua quasi residenza della regia corte in lei et per il 
trarico et negotio e la principale che sia in detto regno " 

I Capmany, Del establecimiento de varias familias ilustres 
de Cataluna en las islas y reynos de Aragon. Memorias 
sobre la marina, torn. ii. Apendice de algunas notas, p. 37. 

§ Scipio di Castro, Awertimenti al S* M A. Colonna 
quando ando vicere di Sicilia." Tesoro politico, torn. ii. 
p. 350. 

I| Breve Clementis", VII. ad Carolum V. anno 1531, ap. 
Rainaldum, Annales Ecclesiastici xx. 624. 



G6 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



purses frequently resisted. The viceroys made it 
their study to have among them some more obse- 
quious adherents, such men as were disposed to 
make themselves acceptable to the court, on account 
perhaps of some lawsuit. They even adopted the 
petty stratagem of holding the assembly in the 
worst season of the year, so that the superior spi- 
ritual princes rather than attend in person might 
be inclined to send proxies, who were sure to be 
more easily managed. It was a special advantage 
that the principle of making even the vacant places 
pay had been definitely established ; the royal 
treasurer voted on behalf of those places. Thus 
the viceroys after all usually obtained what they 
wanted of the clergy. But the towns still remained 
to be dealt with. These had commonly to impose a 
tax on themselves to make up the amount of the 
donative; they therefore chose for their represen- 
tatives the most obstinate of their citizens, those 
who were most injuriously affected by the tax, and 
who were most independent of the viceroys. It 
seemed necessary to the latter to get their own 
officers among them in some way or another, and 
indispensable to gain over to their interests the 
praetor of Palermo, who gave the first vote, and 
whose example was usually followed by the other 
members. They did not open the assembly till 
they had first struck an accurate balance be- 
tween the favorable and unfavorable votes, and 
assured themselves that they possessed a majority *. 

Thus there was associated, and in constant rela- 
tion with the viceroy, a power really very superior 
to his, a power the preponderating influence of which 
he strove to get rid of by all manner of contri- 
vances, but which continually threatened him from 
the background. 

His most important functions concerned the 
administration of justice. The government had 
indeed succeeded in getting the remains of the 
baronial jurisdictions into the hands of doctors of 
law ; it had placed presidents in the supreme court 
instead of the maestro giustitiere and the luogo- 
tenentef ; nor was it possible to find men more 
obsequious to the viceroy than the majority of the 
ministers of justice; nevertheless, these functions 
of his were coupled with the greatest difficulties. 

The main thing was, that all the real active 
powers of jurisdiction belonged to the functionaries, 
whilst all the responsibility was heaped upon the 
viceroy, and he could appoint none to judicial offices 
but native born Sicilians J. 

Three evils were remarked in the class of judi- 
cial functionaries, and all three seemed incurable. 
In the first place, Sicily, like Italy and Spain, 
abounded throughout in private feuds, feuds so 
widely ramified that the judges in any important cause 
were seldom free from the bias of personal interest, 
and so rancorous that no effort of force or kindness 
availed to allay them §. Secondly, the members 
of the tribunals had no fixed salaries, but depended 

* Scipio di Castro, Avvertimenti. 

t Buonfiglio Costanzo, Historia di Sicilia, ii. lib. viii. p. 
595. 

J Ragazzoni : " Alcuno non puo esser giudice che non sia 
dottore et cittadino del regno." 

§ Soriano, Relatione di Spagna. "Partialita sonofra loro 
le quali se bene Don Ferrante Gonzaga et altri vicere hanno 
cercato di comporre, non hanno pero potuto far tanto che 
basti, perche la discordia invecchiata e come una infermita 
venenosa sparsa per tutt' il corpo." 



on the fees upon suits. These fees being techni- 
cally known by the name of candles, it became a 
standing joke to say, that the litigant was sure to 
win who lighted most candles for his judge, so that 
he might the better discern the truth. Shameless 
bribery prevailed. Thirdly, the two superior tri- 
bunals, called the Great Court and the Holy Con- 
science, were constituted by functionaries appointed 
only for two years, who made it their utmost en- 
deavour to please the viceroy, so that they might 
be again employed by him at a future time. 

Whilst all these judges were thus more intent 
upon their own advantage than upon justice, they 
were dexterous enough to conceal this from the 
viceroy, to prevent his perceiving the truth, and 
to cozen him with their unjust judgments. The 
biennial judges exerted every effort to appear 
such as they thought he wished them to be : they 
did not only whatever pleased him, but whatever 
they fancied would please him, and strove to read 
in his countenance the decision it imported them 
to pronounce. But what would be the consequen- 
ces, so soon as these dangerous motives of interest 
found footing in the viceregal house itself ? There 
were instances of persons, who to gain the good- 
will of a public officer of high station and to make 
use of him for petty ends, contrived by extraordi- 
nary hints and suggestions, to fill him with flattering 
anticipations that resulted in nothing but confusion. 
There were women, whose property was more in ex- 
pectation than in actual possession, and who sought 
to ally themselves in marriage with some of the vice- 
roy's ministers, in order to strengthen their inte- 
rests. Accordingly, the viceroy was sometimes in 
the condition of the duke of Messina, who had 
sometimes five law-suits at once in his house. His 
chamberlain was engaged in litigation with a com- 
mune, his most confidential favourite, Pietro Velas- 
quez, with a duke; his auditor and his secretary 
laid claim each to a barony, and his son's chamber- 
lain even to a county. These claims became en- 
tangled in the ramifications of the general feuds, 
and clashing with each other made his house seem 
a hell *. 

In this state of things the tribunal was an insti- 
tution for injustice, an arena for private feuds; the 
most iniquitous verdicts were inevitable. What 
could the viceroy do ? If he would delay judg- 
ment he was hated like death. If he did not show 
himself upon the tribunals, all the faults committed 
were charged upon his absence, and he was cen- 
sured for neglect of his duty : but if he made his 
appearance the sentences were ascribed to his in- 
fluence. If his house had but the most remote 
interest in the affair in question, the most righte- 
ous decision was forthwith set down as being a 
work of partiality. 

Herein was manifested the natural character of 
these Sicilians ; submissive, crouching, and seemingly 
born to be slaves, so long as one could promote 
their advantage, but who started up the instant 
their rights and privileges were in the least in- 
vaded, and maintained them with the utmost vehe- 
mence +. The number of the malcontents was 

* All this is from Scipio di Castro, Avvertimenti : " dell' 
artificio de gli ufnciali," p. 371 ; " dell' interesse de servitori," 
p. 377. 

t Avvertimenti: "della natura de Siciliani," 346. Ra- 
gazzoni. 



NAPLES. 



presently swelled by the functionaries appointed 
for life, who, in direct contrast with the biennial 
functionaries, were always in opposition to the 
viceroy, and ascribed to their own influence what- 
ever good he did, and all that was bad to his 
neglect of their counsel. Next came those of the 
powerful landed proprietors, who had some cause 
or another of complaint. Their resistance, which 
appeared never to be directed against the king and 
the law, but always against abuses and the viceroy, 
affected a very legitimate character. 

And thus we have here this singular spectacle; 
a governor endeavouring to circumvent the natives 
by stratagem, to get money from them, and the 
natives again besetting the governor with a thou- 
sand intrigues, with the effect, if not with the inten- 
tion, of getting rid of him. 

For what was this or that viceroy to the court ? 
We know this court, where an enemy was to be 
found for every man; where slander opened a sure 
road to the royal ear; where to be doubted was to 
be ruined. The conflict was speedily transferred 
from Sicily to Madrid. The viceroy and his an- 
tagonists made themselves each their party in the 
council of Italy. Their struggle lasted for awhile; 
but by and by the complainants usually gained the 
upper hand, particularly when they backed their 
complaints with pi'esents. Then followed first of 
all reproofs, and next investigations called sindica- 
tions, and lastly condemnations, for the sindi- 
cators acted in accordance with the will of the 
king, who had by this time lent his ear to the com- 
plaints. There was no help for it; the viceroy was 
obliged to retire, or if he remained in office it was 
with obloquy and disgrace. 

The strife that convulsed Sicily was in reality 
carried on between the royal authority and the 
rights of the several classes of the native inhabit- 
ants. But the whole hatred which the island 
might in such continuous strife have bent upon the 
king, became personal and fell upon his viceroy. 
The latter was then abandoned by his sovereign, 
and the battle begau anew. 

And hence it was, not one of these viceroys 
ended his career with honour *. Juan de Lanuza 
in vain sacrificed his own son to the claims of jus- 
tice; Ferdinand the Catholic, said that his virey 
did the deeds of a Roman, but from stupidity, and 
he deposed him. Don Ugo de Moncada was ex- 
pelled in an insurrection by the Sicilians. Though 
the duke of Monteleone was old and weak, he 
was compelled to go to Spain to justify himself. 
Don Ferrante Gonzaga was accused of mal-ad- 
mini strati on of the corn revenue, and subjected to 
a very severe sindication. Juan de Vega experien- 
ced one no mildex*, having been implicated through 
his father-in-law in the internal quarrels of the Si- 
cilians. The duke of Medina was forced to witness 
the punishment of those confidants who had thrown 
his house into confusion, and then to quit office. 
Don Garcia de Toledo was overthrown by his 
enemies at court. It was in vain the marquis of 
Pescara kept himself aloof from every private in- 
terest; his most confidential minister committed 
the faults he himself avoided ; the strong repri- 
mands addressed to him would infallibly have been 
followed by his dismissal, had not his death antici- 
pated this. Though Marc Antonio Colonna, having 

* Cabrera: "Sicilia fatal a sus virreyes." 



07 



had all these cases urgently put before him, pro- 
fited by the warning, and on the whole conducted 
himself very well, still even he did not escape sus- 
picion on the king's part. Upon the strength of 
some letters found in the inventory of a baptized 
Jew at Messina, Marc Antonio Colonna was re- 
called, and his accuser made president of the king- 
dom *. 

So stood matters in Sicily. This strife between 
the two powers was never brought to a definite 
decision. The Spanish kings found themselves 
constrained to limit the privileges of the inquisi- 
tion, and when they re-established it, to bind the 
inquisitors to greater moderation in the discharge 
of their office % 

IV. Naples. 

If the towns and barons of Sicily derived a 
greater degree of independence from the fact, that 
they had rendered services to the royal house; 
those of Naples could compare with them in this 
respect. There the Aragonese faction of the barons 
had thrice proved victorious for their king, and 
obtained a distinguished position in consequence. 
The first occasion was on the arrival of Alfonso V., 
and in the wars connected therewith, waged by 
Ferrante the elder, against his rebellious subjects. 
The second was on the conquest of the kingdom by 
Ferdinand the Catholic, when Gonsalvo de Cordova 
portioned out no few possessions of the vanquished 
among the chief persons of his army. The third was 
at the successful defence of Naples by Charles V. 
against Francis I., when eleven of the most eminent 
men of the defeated party were punished with the 
confiscation of their property, six others with con- 
fiscation and death, and many other persons of infe- 
rior station were implicated in the mischance; the 
property of all these persons was transferred to the 
victors. The prince of Orange was almost too 
liberal in disposing of it. The burghers of Naples 
took a lively part in all these conflicts, and on the 
same side. In the third greatest peril of Ferrante 
the elder, and of Ferrantino, they were their main 
supporters. On the first arrival of Gonsalvo de 
Cordova, with whom they had long kept up an 
understanding, they opened their gates to him. In 
the siege of 1528 they displayed a pertinacious 
fidelity that determined the issue of the war. Not- 
withstanding all this, there was in Naples nothing 
like independent strength, on the part either of the 
nobility or of the towns; the viceroy was there free 
from the difficulties encountered by his compeer of 
Sicily. The condition of Naples excited the won- 
der of politicians, still more than did that of Castile; 
they saw the government despotic, the subjects 
proud; the former hated, and the latter disposed to 
revolt; yet the former firmly established, and the 
latter obedient J. 

* Buonfiglio Costanzo, Historia di Sicilia, p. 658. 

t Llorente, ii. 125, limited by the words of Scipio di Castro, 
p. 371 : "Li padri inquisitori, i quali lianno potuto conoscere 
che alia maesta del re catolico e stato piu grato colui il quale 
nel suo procedere ha usato maggior modestia, doveranno 
guardarsi da rottura." . 

X Al Sr Landi, MS. " In vero, consideratosi il governa- 
tore et il governato, quello imperioso et altiero, questo 
superbo et indomito, quello odiato per la repentina grandezza 
et per la natura insupportabile da molti, questo inclinato alle 
rivolte et percio atto a poter essere sollevato et favorito da 
diversi interessati, essendosi quello talmente stabilito nel 
F 2 



68 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



Thus we come again to the old question; how 
was the feudal system humbled % How was a new 
constitution established on the basis of the royal 
prerogative \ 

The nobles and the towns. 

In the first place, the nobles were divided among 
themselves. Often as the Aragonese faction had 
prevailed, it could never altogether put down that 
of Anjou; hence it was never possible for the nobi- 
lity to combine in any united effort against the 
government. The nobles used to assemble in the 
Seggi of Naples, and there they exercised some 
rights affecting the general interests. There was 
no need of disturbing them in the exercise of these. 
The majority possessed by the government party 
was so strong and so much to be relied on, that 
Thomas Campanella advised the king to establish 
similar institutions in his other states, as certain 
instruments for securing allegiance*. No addi- 
tional member could be admitted into these seggi 
without the king's express permission f. To pre- 
vent the possibility of unanimity ever occurring 
in these assemblies, the king bestowed the vacant 
fiefs on persons of the burgher class, or onforeigners, 
such as Genoese merchants ; and these new men 
claimed all the privileges of the others, but natu- 
rally incurred the mortification of not being recog- 
nized as equals by their fellow members. 

Secondly, the king of Spain contrived to bind 
the ambition of the Neapolitan nobility to his own 
cause. There was no baron so petty that he might 
not aspire to the rank of count or of duke ; the 
kings of Spain even bestowed the title of prince, 
which had always before been withheld. Now this 
did not merely attach the recipients of favour to 
its dispenser; the shrewd politicians of those times 
noticed also an effect of a totally distinct kind 
resulting therefrom. All the people of rank in the 
land flocked to Naples, where, as their natural 
emulation gathered strength from the concourse of 
numbers, each strove to outdo the others in splen- 
dour, and every man endeavoured to live at least 
in a manner suitable to his rank. But as their 
titles alone rose, but not their incomes, this was 
not always possible, and most of these ambitious 
persons ruined their fortunes J. From the affluence 
which would have sufficed to maintain them in 
consideration and importance, they fell into debt, 
poverty, and that embarrassed condition that cut 
them to the quick. If they then retired to their 
estates to retrieve their affairs, they still needed 
the indulgence of the king. He left their hands 
free as to their manorial possessions ; he did not 

possesso et nel regimento che questo non possa cosi facil- 
mente ne scuotersi ne ricalcitrare, — si deve ammirare et 
stupire di cosi fatto successo." 

* Campanella, Monarchia Hispanica, c. xiv. 

t Beaumont, Statistics of Naples and Sicily, chap. vi. of 
the six seggi of the city of Naples. 

J Alia Santita di Paolo V. MS. c. 2. "Come quelli che si 
pascono assai di fumo et helle apparenze, cominciarono a 
pretendere diversi titoli, intanto che ogni minimo harone si 
procur6 titolo di duca, principe, marchese et conte : il che 
facilmente essendoli stato conceduto dal re, che sempre 
hehbe mira di tenerseli grati, . . . . et per mantenimento di 
essi titoli essendoli stato necessario spendere largamente, 
mentre hanno voluto far residentia in Napoli, et conseguen- 
temente essendosi indebitati, sono stati forzati a ritirarsi 
nelli loro stati, dove si cominciarono a dare in preda tutto." 



stand in the way of their assumptions against the 
clergy as he might have done; how often did these 
nobles appoint needy priests to benefices, who con- 
tented themselves with a small portion of the in- 
come of their cures, leaving the rest to their patrons! 
On these occasions the royal tribunals often enough 
shut their eyes to the abuse. 

But there was another still more direct way to 
humble the nobility, viz., the exercise of impartial 
justice in the city. The better to understand the 
advantage of this, we must call to mind the relation 
in which the nobles stood to the people ot Naples. 

This was the same relation of jealousy, of hatred 
between class and class, of secret or open dislike, 
which has shown itself more actively in Germany 
than in any other nation in the world. This can- 
not be more strongly exemplified than by the cir- 
cumstances that accompanied the attempt of the 
Spaniards to introduce the inquisition into the 
country. Pietro di Toledo made little account of 
the first movements, and of the isolated resistance 
offered by the several ranks; but when both united 
in arms, and nobles and burghers flocked together 
at the sound of the tocsin, took hands and marched 
two and two, a noble and a burgher together, to 
the church, shouting, " Union !" as they went, 
then the viceroy was alarcned*. He called to him, 
to Puzzuolo the old eletto of the people, Domenico 
Terracina, the consultores, and the chief people of 
the different localities. There he represented to 
them that it was he who made the burghers and 
the nobles equal ; he would now grant them some- 
thing which he had not granted the nobles when they 
stood alone, nor now when they had at last united, 
with the burghers ; he would grant it to the latter, 
and to them alone. He gave them a written assur- 
ance that there should never be any question of 
the inquisition, nor of any prosecution to be begun 
on account of these proceedings *f\ So urgent did 
it seem to the greatest viceroy Naples ever had, to 
keep alive the hostility between the two classes. 

But how, we ask, could he boast of having made 
the burghers equal to the nobles ? 

When Pietro di Toledo departed from the im- 
perial court at Ratisbon, to assume the government 
of Naples, and reflected by the way on the condi- 
tion and the disorders of that kingdom, he made 
up his mind to a rigid and unbiassed administra- 
tion of justice. This man, who gave the city a new 
form, did as much by the state. Under his go- 
vernment marquises, dukes, and princes, were seen 
committed to prison for their debts; their causes 
were tried before judges of plebeian extraction ; 
in criminal prosecutions they were not spared the 
rope, but were punished even capitallyj. In this 

* These particulars are from the MS. "Delle seritture 
del Sig r Hettore Gesualdo, eommissario per Sua Maesta nella 
causa delli romori di Napoli." Tnformatt. vol. xxxiv. and in 
particular from the Relatione di detto Sigr Hettore di detti 
romori a Sua Maesta : I have not found them elsewhere. 

t From the same Seritture, " Eccettione presentata per la 
citta." Pietro di Toledo assures the citizens, " che Thaveva 
egualati con li signori principi di questa citta et regno ;" 
moreover, "che voleva piu tosto fare detta gratia alpopolo 
solo che a tutta la citta insieme." 

I Lippomano : " In Napoli, massime nelle cause che si 
trattano innanzi al vicere, veramente si fa giustitia, et non 
si permette che huomo per grande che sia opprima le persone 
basse, perche si procede contra di loro, benche siano mar- 
chesi, duchi et principi." - 



THE CLERGY. 



69 



way the old disorders were put an end to. The nobles 
and the burghers were made equal before the law. 
The rebellious necks of the former were bent ; the 
latter were inspired with a lofty feeling of self- 
esteem. The passions of this people were made use 
of to keep it in allegiance. New food was given the 
secret hate it cherished against the nobles, by ap- 
pointing a man of burgher rank to judge the of- 
fences of the princely transgressors, and in point of 
fact that judge gave free course to a certain spirit 
of vengeance. 

Complaints were now raised by the nobility, and 
that not by the Neapolitan alone. The Venetian 
nobili also, to whom we owe our Relationi, were 
dissatisfied with these things. Had not nature and 
fortune established an ineffaceable difference be- 
tween the two ranks * I Were people to imitate the 
Turks, among whom all were equally slaves ? Be- 
sides the noble would be reduced to despair, finding 
himself debased, and the burgher would become 
arrogant when treated like a noble. 

Pietro de Toledo however knew very well what 
he was doing; he knew that by the course he pur- 
sued he kept the two ranks apart from each other, 
so that neither could now attempt anything with- 
out the other f . He saw that by this means he 
tranquillized the kingdom, and so he pursued his 
way unswervingly, and the greater the rigour of 
the judges, the greater were in his eyes their claim 
to promotion and titles. In this way he broke all 
the remaining strength of both these classes. They 
had still the right of granting the donative, and at 
times we see them assembled in what were called 
general parliaments ; but these are not to be com- 
pared even with the Castilian cortes in their last 
aspect ; the influence of the Sindico gave them 
their determinate bias, and they vied in granting 
all that was demanded of them. Their existence 
was almost overlooked J. 

The Clergy. 

But there remains yet a third estate to be con- 
sidered, the ecclesiastical, and this was more im- 
portant in Naples than any where else, in conse- 
quence of the peculiar position of that kingdom. 

The popes, we know, never made upon any other 
country such strenuous or such successful claims of 
complete supremacy ; here they had immediately 
in their own hands the patronage of most ecclesias- 
tical places; and were not all clergymen natural 
allies of the pope ? The Neapolitan clergy carried 
into actual instantaneous operation those decrees 
of the council of Trent which the king rejected, 
those namely that had reference to the jurisdiction 
of the church over the laity. The famous bull 
In Coena Domini, which pretends to limit the right 
of the temporal sovereigns to impose taxes on their 
subjects, met with their entire approval. Though 
the viceroy strongly prohibited its promulgation, six 
bishops and an archbishop of Naples did not hesi- 

* Tiepolo : " Una diversita che non si pu6 mutare chi 
non muta la natura et li costumi di tutt' il mondo." 

+ The author of the Ragionamento del re Filippo II. al 
principe suo figliuolo, MS. " I popoli godono mirabilmente 
di questa giustitia, col mezzo della quale ponno vedere i 
conti loro contra lor baroni, et i baroni senza i] popolo sono 
capi senza membro." 

t See some particulars in Parrino, Teatro de' Vicere, from 
which Giannone has taken almost all he communicates on 
this subject. Both are very unsatisfactory. 



tate to threaten with excommunication those who 
should endeavour to exact taxes *. The close con- 
nexion of the clergy with Rome was on every oc- 
casion very dangerous to the whole state. 

The viceroys however derived advantage from 
the fact that the higher clergy of the catholic 
church are actuated by a twofold interest. The 
one interest is in favour of the fulness of ecclesias- 
tical authority, and, in as far as this is directed 
against the laity, is by all means in opposition to the 
welfare of the state. But it has another interest in 
conflict with the absolute supremacy of the pope, 
which falls too heavily upon its own body. It was 
under the influence of this feeling that the great 
councils were held; it was for the same reason the 
clergy had recourse to the royal authority against 
the ecclesiastical, against the supreme bishop. This 
last named interest was very prominently exem- 
plified in Naples. 

It may be that the Roman curia often set up 
very unjust pretensions; but at times it really had 
very well founded causes of complaint. If the 
Neapolitan bishops demanded extraordinary fees 
for every act of their office, though this was other- 
wise amply remunerated; if they required compen- 
sation even for the completion and execution of 
papal dispensations to marry, this might possibly 
have been excused; but was it to be endured that 
upon bestowing small benefices they should demand 
half the income of the first year, and besides this 
higher fees than the papal dataria and chancery ? 
that to secure these profits they never troubled 
themselves as to whether the benefices were re- 
served to the pope or not, but even looked out for 
pretenders to the right of patronage, and uniting 
with them, proceeded at once to fill up the appoint- 
ments f ? Many other things besides were com- 
plained of by the papal nuncios. The bishops had 
empowered the apostolic chamber to fix at a cer- 
tain tariff the tithes accruing to it from the king- 
dom, and to leave the collection of the amount to 
them; but upon this they not only arbitrarily aug- 
mented the rate, but they also established collec- 
tors' places, the burthen of which fell upon the 
tithepayers, and disposed of them by sale; and yet 
for all that they paid the papal chamber badly. 
The camera had also compounded with the chap- 
ters for its right to spolia; the bishops collected the 
specified sums in this case also; but here again 
they increased the amount, they appointed collectors 
unduly, and they were equally dishonest in their 
payments to the apostolic chamber. Thus they at 
once oppressed those beneath them, and defrauded 
their superior. The council of Trent had enjoined 
the establishment of seminaries for the education 
of young persons without fortune, and directed that 
the expense should be defrayed, first, by contribu- 
tions from the clergy, and next, by the combination 
of smaller benefices. Now the Neapolitan bishops 
levied contributions at first, and then they united 
benefices; but no matter how many of these they 
put together, they never desisted from levying the 

* Giannone, Istoria Civile di Napoli, lib. xxxiii. c. iv. 

t Relatione alia Santita di N«> Signore Papa Paolo V. 
" Per avidita di guadagnare l'emolumenti delle espeditioni 
delle bolle hanno conferito detti beneficii indifferentemente, 
non havendo riguardo se sono affetti o riservati alia sede 
apostolica. Et in caso che sono riservati, — pongono in campo 
che siano di juspatronato, et operano che li figurati preten- 
denti del juspatronato ricorrono in Napoli." 



70 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



contributions*, and no matter how much they 
raised from both sources, they never admitted into 
the seminaries any but persons who could pay. 
They were at constant variance on these and other 
subjects with the papal chamber, with the nuncios, 
and the visitators of the Curia. What could have 
been more to be dreaded by them than a strict con- 
trol and supervision such as Rome had in view ? 

Now if the first purpose which we noticed in the 
clergy, namely that of extending their jurisdiction 
over the laity in concert with the popes, was attend- 
ed with inconvenience, nay with danger to the go- 
vernment, though the latter always contrived to 
avoid the danger by means of its relations with 
Rome and new treaties, — this second tendency of 
the clergy to counteract the apostolic see was on 
the other hand of extraordinary utility to the go- 
vernment. For to whom could the ecclesiastic have 
recourse ? He was always obliged to take refuge 
with the government; he was forced to appeal to 
the interest it had in putting bounds to the church's 
jurisdiction, an interest which on other occasions 
he himself warmly opposed. 

Thus it was that the Neapolitan clergy surren- 
dered to the laity among other things the adminis- 
tration of its seminaries, and if the pope desired to 
have these inquired into, the clergy obtained a 
declaration from the government that no sort of 
authority over the laity should be conceded to a 
papal commissioner, and they contrived that the 
pope's instructions should be refused the exequatur f. 
Again, what an easy matter it was to uphold and 
confirm before the royal chamber the claims of 
those pretenders to the right of patronage before 
mentioned. It was plain that a patronage once in 
lay hands might, from the peculiar circumstances 
of the country, fall one time or another into those 
of the king, but that this could never occur so long 
as the patronage was acknowledged to be vested 
in the church. This was a principle of frequent 
recurrence in other cases besides. An alliance 
grew up between the government and the ecclesi- 
astical order ; an alliance directed in the first 
instance against the encroachments of Rome, but 
one by which the temporal power of the clergy 
was necessarily limited, and the power of the crown 
over the body greatly enhanced. 

New constitution. 

Here, as in Sicily, the contest was carried on with 
arts that cannot be justified ; the consequence in 
Sicily was that the viceroy became impotent and 
his credit unstable, whilst in Naples the govern- 
ment grew strong, nay unlimited. It availed itself 
of the ambition of the barons, of the antipathy of 
the burgher class to the nobles, of the craving of 

* Alia Santita di Paolo V. " Molti vicarii lianno uniti 
beneficii semplici piu di quello che saria bisognato al vitto et 
sostentaraento di detti seminarii, et molti altri n'hanno uniti 
in bucna parte, et nondimeno seguitano d'esigere tutta detta 
tassa. quale incorporano con l'entrata degli ordinarii." 

t Alia Santita di Paolo V. " II commissario, Carlo Bel- 
huomo, ancorche molto tempo facesse instanza per havere 
l'Exequatur regio, mai pote ottenerlo, poiche li vicarii secre- 
tamente fecero intendere a li regii official! che non lo doves- 
sero concedere, asserendo che saria stato interesse alia 
giurisdittione di Sua Maesta, essendo che l'administratori di 
detti seminarii erano tutti laici et non dovevano essere as- J 
tretti a render conto a giudici ecclesiastici." 



the clergy for wealth and enjoyment, to divide and 
humble them all. But perhaps it would not have 
succeeded in this if it had not at the same time 
contrived to establish its strength securely upon 
the basis of a rigidly defined hierarchy of officials, 
devoted troops, and considerable taxes. The de- 
struction of the old constitution, and the creation 
of the new, proceeded always hand in hand. We 
separate them only that we may set the various 
points of the matter in a more distinct light. 

Relation to the Pope. 

Let us then confine our attention in the first 
place to the point already touched on, the securing 
of the country against the machinations of the 
pope, who, as feudal lord, asserted here a twofold 
claim to legitimate influence. The palladium of 
the kingdom, the true bulwark against all papal 
encroachments, was the royal exequatur. The ca- 
tholic kings of Spain were not so catholic as to 
allow of this being wrested from them. Ferdinand 
indignantly commanded a courier of the pope, who 
had entered the kingdom with a brief, and without 
an exequatur, to be arrested and hanged *. Charles 
V. laid it down as his most decided will that no 
decree should be published in the kingdom without 
his permission + ; no one was to contravene this 
who valued his favour and service. Philip IT. 
gave orders to punish any one who should have 
the audacity to publish any decree in the kingdom 
without his own approbation %. These kings ad- 
hered firmly to these principles, notwithstanding 
all the vehemence with which the popes protested 
that they were in contradiction to the clauses of 
their investiture. A capellano maggiore had been 
appointed, only to determine whether a decree was 
of purely ecclesiastical import, or whether it bore 
on secular matters; the papal adherents complained 
however of that officer, that his pretended inde- 
pendence was only apparent, and that the decisions 
he pronounced were in every instance dictated by 
the royal councils. This position of the kings was 
however the easier to maintain, inasmuch as all 
the three orders, not only the clerical, of which we 
have spoken, but the two others likewise, had a 
great interest in getting rid of the pope's influence. 
During the troubles with which the kingdom was 
constantly afflicted, the nobles had received a vast 
deal of church property from the archbishops and 
bishops, at first perhaps on lease or by way of 
pledge, or for safe keeping, and this they had after- 
wards retained as their own. They had therefore 

* Ferdinand au viceroi de Naples, Burgos, 22 May, 1508. 
Spanish and French Lettres du roi Louys XII. i. p. 109. 
Afterwards given to the press by Van Espen, Liinig, and 
Llorente. 

t Edict of Charles V. of April 30, 1540, in the Relatione 
"alia Santita," &c. not known, as it appears, to Giannone. 
"Perche sono le regie pragmatiche nel regno, che qualsi- 
voglia provisione che venghi fuori del regno non si puo 
esseguire senza nostra scienza e licenza, le quali sono in 

viridi observantia per questo ordiniamo che cosi le 

debbiate esseguire et far esseguire : e se si facesse il con- 
trario con li notarii et altri laici vi assecurarete delle per- 
sone loro, et se fossero clerici, gli ordinarete che ne venghino 
a dare informatione, perche si possa da noi procedere come 
si conviene." 

X Philip's edict of the 30th of Aug. 1561. Ibid. Already 
known. 



FUNCTIONARIES, THE ARMY, REVENUES. 



the utmost reason to fear the pope, who was always 
intent on the recovery of alienated church property. 
Fortunately for them the papers, by which the 
church might have proved its priority of posses- 
sion, had been lost in the troubles; still a multi- 
tude of lawsuits were continually going on about 
these matters, and the nobility were incessantly in 
need of protection on the part of the royal against 
the clerical authority. In no less degree must the 
burgher corporations, which would never tolerate 
the exemption of the clergy from the public burthens 
in their towns, have wished to keep out a power, 
the influence of which would have upheld or restored 
the exemptions. And thus the three orders co- 
operated with the king's decided will to restrict 
the operation of the supremacy of Rome to such a 
degree, that it brought in to the pope little more 
than the white palfrey every Peter and Paul's day. 
Those who inclined to the papal interests dreaded 
they should see a counterpart to the Monarchia 
Sicula arise in Naples. 

Functionaries, the Army, Revenues. 

In this way the viceroys had the kingdom so 
much the more freely at their disposal. The old 
dignities indeed still subsisted ; there were still to 
be seen at times the supreme judge with his banner 
of justice, the grand prothonotary with his hono- 
rary emblem the book, the high chancellor with his 
doctor's laurel, but all essential power had passed 
away from them to the presidents and councillors 
of the royal courts. At the head of the real effec- 
tive judiciary was the holy council of Santa Chiara. 
Even the native inhabitants were content to see 
five Spanish councillors sitting in it besides ten 
Italian; it seemed to them that one set would be free 
from the party feelings prevailing in the country, 
and that the other would be furnished with ade- 
quate knowledge of local circumstances, so that the 
two together would co-opei'ate the more efficiently 
to the ends of justice*. Appeals were referred to 
this court from all the others of the kingdom, par- 
ticularly from that of the vfcaria and the seven 
other tribunals of the city. It enjoyed so much 
the more consideration, because it formed an excep- 
tion to the rule affecting all the other courts, inas- 
much as its members could be removed, either not 
at all, or only with extraordinary difficulty. It was 
well known that the president could be more ser- 
viceable to his friends than many a prince ; and it 
was remarked that even the king, by whom he was 
appointed, gave him the title of Serene. This court 
is fairly comparable with the great council of 
Castile f. 

* Littera Scritta al Cardl Borgia. " Gli uni, spoliati come 
straniere dell' affetto del sangue et dell' amore et dell' odio 
che nelT istessa patria sugliono alterare li animi nostri, ven- 
gono a far contrapeso alii altri colleghi talvolta ingannati da 
queste passioni; gli altri come pratiche nel paese delle 
inclinationi, fini et interesse della gente, dan molto lume 
alia discussione delle cause." According to Lippomano it 
had, as early as 1575, fifteen members, a thing which is left 
undetermined by Tapia. Jus regni Neapolitani ex con- 
stitutt. etc., Naples, 1605, p. 146. The number -was aug- 
mented in the year 1600. 

t Lippomano. " L'ufficio del consiglio detto, nel quale si 
riducono quasi tutte cause d'importanza concernenti la roba 
et la vita degli huomini, e di grande autorita. Gl' ordini 
stabiliti et le leggi di quel regno in questi officii sono mira- 



71 



Only those matters however belonged to its juris- 
diction which did not appertain to the king's patri- 
monium ; all these latter were disposed of by the 
Sommaria della Camera. The Davalos still filled 
the office of grand chamberlain, but they had to 
content themselves with carrying the crown in 
procession on occasions of solemnity ; even the 
show of their connexion with the exchequer was 
put an end to, when this was removed from the 
palace. As matters concerning the taxes and feudal 
tenures were under the control of the Sommaria, 
it may in some degree be likened to the council of 
finance of Castile. 

There was over both a council immediately con- 
nected with the viceroy, called conseglio collateral, 
his own consulta, consisting of two Spanish and one 
Neapolitan regent. It assembled daily in the vice- 
roy's palace, and finally determined all cases other- 
wise left undecided. The Cappellano Maggiore 
made his reports to this council : Lippomano calls 
it the papacy of the doctors; it was the centre of 
all public business. 

Under these magistracies there was a whole 
hierarchy of subordinate functionaries. The man- 
ner of nomination was that each college proposed 
three or four candidates, and the viceroy appointed 
one of these. The court of Madrid never ventured 
to promote any one in opposition to the viceroy's 
will ; it left his hands perfectly free. The best 
places fell to the lot of the Spaniards. The most 
favoured after these were those who were of mixed 
Spanish and Neapolitan blood, and who were called 
by those who disliked them, janissaries. They 
formed as it were a colony sent out to exercise 
dominion; they hung very closely together; they 
were almost all equally proud, impetuous, harsh, 
and inaccessible ; they devoted themselves above 
all things to the extension of the royal and the vice- 
regal power *. 

By the side of this host of functionaries there 
was a standing army consisting chiefly of Spaniards, 
ready to execute their commands, and to quell all 
attempts at resistance. The viceroy was attended 
in war and peace by a hundred gentlemen splen- 
didly mounted and armed, called the Permanents, 
a picked body, half Spanish half Italian. Besides 
these there were sixteen companies of Huomini 
d' Armi, five Spanish and eleven Italian, each always 
led by officers of its own nation, and four hundred 
and fifty light horsemen. This was the Avhole 
cavalry of the kingdom, for though the barons 
were still bound by law to do feudal service, the 
practice had been wholly discontinued f. The main 
strength of the army was constituted by four thou- 
sand Spanish infantry quartered in the heart of the 
kingdom, and one thousand six hundred others em- 
ployed in garrisoning the castles and towers ex- 
tending in an uninterrupted chain from Pescara to 
Reggio, and from Reggio to Gaeta. These troops 
were all under the orders of the viceroy. The time 
had been when the constable was the first person 

bill, causati forse dalli disordini delli ufficiali et della malitia 
delle genti." 

* Lippomano: al Signor Landi; al Cardinale Borgia; in 
several places. 

t Lippomano. " Ne altra cavalleria si trova nel regno. 
E ben vero che li baroni sono obligati a servire in tempo di 
guerra a difesa con le proprie persone. Questi per quanto 
che ho inteso per nota cavata della summaria, erano l'anno 
1564 da 600, et hora il numero e poco alterato." 



72 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



in the kingdom, and sat on the king's right ; but 
now he was of no account ; a maestro del campo 
was next in command under the viceroy. A gene- 
ral arming had also been provided for here as weM 
as in Castile, and at a still earlier period. Every 
hundred hearths were required to furnish five 
men, who were bound to serve for five years, and 
the number of troops thus raised was computed at 
24,078 men. They were mustered from time to 
time, and the captains were empowered to dismiss 
those that were inefficient *. 

Now all this together, the functionaries, the 
army, the fortresses, the previous debts, and the 
king's necessities, rendered heavy taxes inevitable. 
I will treat in the succeeding chapter of the style 
and character of the administration, and the way in 
which it worked. For the present it will be enough 
that I state the amount and the gradual augmenta- 
tion of the taxes, so far as I have been able to 
make them out. Under Ferrante the Elder the 
royal revenues amounted, according to the calcula- 
tions of his son Federigo, to 800,000 ducats f. To 
this I will subjoin two other statements. Whereas 
Giovanbattista Spinello computed that, all draw- 
backs deducted, there remained to the king only a 
net income of 450,000 ducats, it agrees very well 
with this, that Alfonso II., Ferrante's eldest son, 
calculating his father's outgoings for all the neces- 
sities of the state, for salaries and the expenses of 
the household, found the whole to amount to 
342,780 ducats %. Thus there would have remained 
a net 450,000 ducats at king Ferrante's disposal. 
This sum could only have been brought together by 
so rigorous a system of administration that it would 
seem as though the king was bent on being the 
only merchant in his kingdom. This income must 
have been much diminished in the Avars after his 
death, particularly as Ferdinand the Catholic bought 
off the opposition of the Angevine barons partly 
with the royal estates; in short, in the year 1551, it 
had not risen much higher than it had been in 
1490. Cavallo estimates the combined revenues 
of Naples and Sicily at a million and a half. But 
from that date they began to rise under Philip II. 
In the year 1558, Soriano sets down the income of 
Naples alone at 1,770,000 ducats. Tiepolo reckons 
that in the year 1567 it amounted to two millions. 
Only seven years later Lippomano reports 2,335,000 
ducats, and in 1579, the estimate was two millions 
and a half. The augmentation went on in the 
same ratio. We find this revenue enlarged to five 
millions of ducats in the year 1620 §. Without 
any increase in the prosperity of the country, with- 
out the addition of one foot of land to the kingdom, 
we see its public income augmented six or seven- 
fold within a space of sixty or seventy years. 

A more palpable proof could hardly present itself 
of the total subjugation of the country, 

* Al Signor Landi : " Questi sono nominati dagli eletti di 
ciascuna terra, pero se non piacciono a i capitani, bisogna 
frovare degli altri : questi sono armati sufficientemente et 
atti phi al patire che al guerreggiare, et e chiamata questa 
gente la fanteria del battaglione. Et questi se ben non sono 
pagati son se non servono, — i capitani pero et gli altri ufficiali 
hanno le provisioni loro ordinarie." 

t Zurita, Anales de Aragon, lib. iv. fol. 187. 

% lb. vol. i. p. 338, and Passero, Giornale, p. 340. 

§ Cavallo's Relatione respecting Charles V. ; Soriano's 
and Tiepolo's respecting Spain ; Lippomano's to Sigr Landi 
and to Cardi Borgia respecting Naples. 



Thus it appears that the Spanish court observed 
a different line of policy with regard to the repre- 
sentation of royalty in this province from that it 
employed in Sicily. In Sicily the exasperation 
against the viceroy, if not guarded against, might 
have turned into revolt against the sovereign; but 
here this was not so readily to be apprehended. 
Here they were but slow to listen to complaints; 
here the authority of the viceroy was upheld as 
long as ever it was possible. When the king sent 
him out from Spain, he declared, " He took him 
from his right hand, and sent him as his other self 
into his kingdom of Hither Sicily; he gave him high 
and low jurisdiction, pure and mixed lordship, and 
the power of the sword; he endowed him with the 
right of remitting punishments, legitimizing natural 
sons, dubbing knights, granting fiefs and bishoprics, 
and even doing that Avherein of right the king's 
own presence were requisite *." He was upheld 
in the exercise of this authority, even when he 
abused it to the prejudice of the country, — if so 
he only did not turn it against the interests of the 
king. 

V. Milan. 

Lombardy acquires an interesting character with 
reference to general history, from the fact that so 
many wars, important to all Europe, were fought 
out on its plains. We may look upon it that Charle- 
magne achieved there his supremacy over the Ger- 
manic nations. There the German emperors gained 
so much of the country as was destined to be theirs, 
and what Otho I. won on that soil, was lost upon it 
again by Frederick II. In Lombardy was decided 
the old conflict between the houses of Burgundy 
and Valois, in which all Europe was implicated. 
Even the French revolution first achieved a com* 
plete preponderance over Europe in these plains. 
So important is the possession of these, and of the 
mountains at whose feet they extend, to the estab- 
lishment and maintenance of a commanding posi- 
tion in our quarter of the globe. 

Never, perhaps, was there a more obstinate strife 
waged for the possession of Lombardy than in the 
first half of the sixteenth century. How often was 
it the battle ground where met Italian and foreign 
arms, Swiss and German, French and Spanish. 
How often was the country taken, lost, and taken 
again ! How many treaties were concluded about 
it and broken ! How many bloody fields were 
fought for its sake ! 

When the Spaniards were at last masters of 
Milan, they saw clearly how important it was to 
them; how Italy, now for the first time surrounded 
by their power, could best be kept in check from 
that position; how their relations with Germany 
and Switzerland were now, for the first time, 
secured by this acquisition; how serviceable it was 
towards connecting the rest of their empire with 
the Netherlands; and what a bar it was to the am- 
bition of their neighbours the French f. 

Nevertheless they could not venture at once to 
deem themselves quite secure. No sincere abjura- 
tion of their own claims was ever to be expected of 
the kings of France. Never were the neighbour- 

* The viceroy's patent in the time of Charles II., Parrino, 
Teatro de' Vicere, torn. i. 
t All this was fully perceived by Soriano in his day. 



THE SENATE. 



73 



ing powers to be implicitly trusted *. What fears 
were felt at the designs of Pierluigi Farnese alone ! 
The Swiss, it was asserted, might still be heard 
saying in the second half of the sixteenth century, 
in the spirit of their forefathers of old, that it was 
not right he should ever want bread who had steel 
in his grasp, that they must look out for the lands 
where corn was to be reaped +. There were 
Milanese exiles whose hatred to the Spaniards was 
compared to the rage of infuriated bulls J. In the 
interior, the old factions were by no means extin- 
guished. 

It was found so much the more necessary at 
once to secure the country, and to keep it in sub- 
jection by means of an armed force, by a standing 
army and fortified places. 

Above all, care was taken to fortify the capital. 
Here they had that castle which even the French 
admitted to be the most complete in the world, 
and to lack nothing but a French garrison §. But, 
besides this, Ferrante Gonzaga strained all the 
resources of the state to surround the whole cir- 
cumference of the city with excellent walls and 
bastions || . Pavia had a castle that more resem- 
bled a palace than a fortress, but the defence of 
1525 gave it reputation and credit. Cremona 
could not trust to its walls, which were somewhat 
decayed ; but its castle was very strong, and there 
were in the city itself two companies of huomini 
d'armi. Como — not from any apprehension of dan- 
ger from within, for no town was truer to its alle- 
giance, but for defence against any possible attack 
on the part of the Swiss — Lodi, Tortona, Novara, 
Alessandria, six smaller fortresses on the most ex- 
posed points of the frontiers, were not less carefully 
strengthened and garrisoned. The infantry quar- 
tered in them constituted the Terzo di Lombardia; 
they were all Spaniards. It was only among the 
cavalry, the eleven companies of huomini d'armi, 
armed half with lances half with arquebuses, that 
Italians were admitted. The government scrupled 
to introduce here even that infantry militia, which 
was formed from the native husbandmen through- 
out all the rest of Italy, Naples not excepted. In 
the infantry, as we have said, none were employed 
but Spaniards. They had the reputation of being 
very apt proficients in military duty, and in mo- 
ments of peril the most expei't among them were 
sent to the wars in Flanders If. 

* Juan de Velasco al Rey nuestro Senor, MS., calls Milan, 
" provincia di tantos confines y en que tan de ordinario suele 
bullir la guerra." 

t Awertimenti et ricordi di Scipio di Castro al duca di 
Terranuova, MS. " Sperando che una morte (di Filippo II.) 
possa aprir loro qualche grande occasione." 

I Memoires du Sieur de Villars. Coll. univ. 38, p. 23. 

§ Voyage du Due de Rohan fait en Italie, etc., en l'an 
1600; in the duke's memoirs, Paris, 1665, tome ii. 

|| Leoni, Relatione di Milano e suo stato nel 1589, MS., 
makes some remarks respecting the walls, which are not 
without interest as regards the art of fortification in those 
days : "Ha molti et spessi bastioni o piatteforme, le quale se 
si fossero andate convertendo in alcuni piu rari baloardi, saria 
forse maggior fortezza et minore spesa. Resta la muraglia 
imperfetta per li parapetti et per qualche altra cosa che le 
manca. Non ha di fuora quelle spianate che haver sogliono 
le buone fortezze al meno d'un miglio intorno. Ma ha ben 
provisto per dentro alia sua securita con larghe e spatiose 
piazze, nelle quali, quando anco la muraglia venisse a per- 
dersi, haverebbono li difensori grande agio a bastionarsi." 

U Leoni : " Sogliono anco a tempi convenient farsi le 



If, according to all this, Milan was to be regarded 
chiefly as a military post, equally well situated for 
defence and for aggression, the country was like- 
wise governed on the principle of keeping it suffi- 
ciently obedient to supply all that was called for by 
the continuous state of warfare. 

Upon this principle the commander of the troops 
was also placed at the head of civil affairs. For 
we must by all means admit that the power of the 
governor in this duchy was founded upon military 
force, and that he was before all things captain gene- 
ral of the forces maintained therein. His rank was 
neither more nor less than that of a field marshal, 
whom Charles V. associated with the administration 
of the last Sforza. When the race of Sforza was 
extinct, and both the civil and military authority 
fell into the hands of the king of Spain, an attempt 
was made to separate these, and to establish a civil 
government independent of the military comman- 
der. It was twice essayed ; but the bad under- 
standing between the two leaders showed soon how 
impracticable it was. In fine, the civil government 
devolved upon the commander of the forces *. 

He was not counterbalanced by any clergy nu- 
merous enough to constitute a distinct order in the 
state ; there was no superior nobility, or next to 
none; he had no cortes to contend with. Would it 
not seem as though the general, at the head of an 
imposing force, restricted by no privileged orders, 
was free to exercise a purely arbitrary autho- 
rity ? 

There were no magnates, yet there existed a 
senate with distinguished rights ; an united order 
of clergy was unknown, but so much the more pro- 
minent were the pretensions of the archbishop, 
who represented in his own person, and exerted, 
the entire ecclesiastical authority ; if the towns did 
not assemble in regular parliaments, they never- 
theless, each for itself, and all privately, looked to 
their own rights. There existed a state of things, 
for which there were analogies in other states, but 
which was peculiarly modified by the special history 
of this country. At first the archbishops had pos- 
sessed great power ; afterwards the towns had 
formed themselves into independent communities; 
and, lastly, a monarchical government was esta- 
blished. Every thing of a self-sustained character 
that had survived these three mutations, now set 
itself in opposition to the Spaniards. The governor 
fell into a distinct position with reference to either 
party. 

TJie Senate. 

When Louis XII. conquered Milan, the supreme 
authority was exercised by two ducal councils, a 
privy council and a council of justice. That monarch, 
who won for himself an equally good name among 
his Italian as among his French subjects, would 
not govern the duchy despotically, but in accord- 
ance with law; he combined the two councils into 
a senate on the model of the French parliament, 
with the right of confirming or rejecting the royal 
decrees f. Thenceforth the senate appeared as the 
protection and bulwark of the country. It contri- 

scelte di piu veterani di tutti li soldati de presidii per man - 
dare in migliori occasioni o in Fiandra o altrove." 

* Ripamonte, Historia Urbis Mediolani, lib. x. 

t The jus decreta ducalia confirmandi et infinnandi. 
Verri, Storia di Milano, ii. 104. 



74 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



buted not a little to the fall of the French autho- 
rity, that Francis I. undervalued the senate and 
disregarded its privileges, and that his representa- 
tive made encroachments on the course of justice, 
and took upon himself of his own good pleasure to 
publish decrees not ratified by that body. For this 
reason Charles V. was careful not to commit similar 
offences. In the year 1527 he renewed the privileges 
of the senate through the constable Bourbon *. No 
doubt he reserved to himself a certain influence by 
means of the nomination of its members, and by 
filling three places with Spaniards f, but the mem- 
bers retained their seats for life, so that this pre- 
caution was not decisive ; they were expressly 
pledged to regard nothing but law and reason. The 
articles of Worms, a fundamental charter of this 
state granted by Charles V., enjoin the senate to 
care for no bye- considerations, and not to suffer 
themselves to be misled from observing the law by 
any royal edict, even though it concerned the ex- 
chequer, much less by any order of the governor's J. 

With the senate was associated a twofold magis- 
tracy, an ordinary and an extraordinary, on which 
devolved the administration of the revenues, the 
superintendence of the subordinate functionaries, 
and the decision of all disputes affecting the royal 
exchequer; it was a remnant of the administration 
as it had subsisted under the Visconti and the 
Sforzas, retaining even a certain pretension to in- 
dependence^ But as it was usual for a senator to 
be associated with the members of this magistracy, 
on such terms that his weight was equivalent 
singly to both theirs together, it is plain how 
great a preponderance remained to the senate. 
Much depended on this, and on the relations be- 
tween the latter body and the governor. 

Now, if the governor had the right of appoint- 
ing to all places which were retained for two years, 
all podestaships, vicariats, captainships, all inferior 
j udgeships, all commissionerships, refendary's places 
and fiscalates, the senate on the other hand had 
the right not only of rejecting, if necessary, the 
candidates elected, but above all of instituting the 
strictest inquiry into their conduct, on the termi- 
nation of their offices, through a sindication. The 
governor indeed could modify the resolutions of 
the senate, and even pardon condemned persons; 
but it rested with the senate to admit or reject 
these acts of grace. The governor represented the 
supreme authority, the senate right and law. As 
the governor had but a transitory position, but the 
senate a permanent one, it was hence the more 
easy for the latter to effect whatever it pleased : 
there was always a living interest at hand to 
withstand any despotism on the part of the supreme 
authority, while at the same time the governor ex- 
ercised a wholesome control over the senate. 

But a radical discordance was thus produced 
between the two sections of the magistracy, which 
often led to bickerings and contention. When 

* Rovelli, Storia di Como, iii. 1, from a Diploma nelT 
archivio di stato, dated Jan. 1, 1527. 

t Leoni: " II senato di Milano consiste solamente nelpre- 
sidente et dodici senatori dottori, tra quali ne sogliono essere 
tre Spagnuoli." 

t Ordini di Vormatia, in the work, Ordines Senatus Me- 
diolanensis, p. 26. 

§ "II magistrato ordinario consiste in sei persone, tre 
togate et altrettanti cappe corte, che hanno cura dell' entrate 
ordinarie della camera et delle spese ancora." 



Ferrante Gonzaga governed Milan, he suffered 
himself to be induced by his private secretary, 
Matrona, to pardon without consulting the senate, 
and to fill up places without concerning himself to 
know its wishes on such occasions. Upon this the 
senate enforced its own rights; it opposed the acts 
of grace and commissioned sindicators over the 
governor's functionaries, men capable, so to speak, 
of finding a hair in an egg. But Gonzaga was not 
dismayed. He procured himself an unlawful in- 
fluence over the senate through secret understand- 
ings with some members, and by various acts of 
annoyance and compulsion. Even his wife Hippo- 
lita succeeded in accomplishing her own whims. 
Nothing then remained but complaints at court, 
and open strife *. 

In this strife Charles V. sided with the senate. 
There were few men perhaps to whom he was per- 
sonally so much attached as to Guasto and Gon- 
zaga. Nevertheless, at the entreaty of the senate, he 
resolved to commission sindicators over them, who 
dealt so severely with the former that he is said to 
have died of vexation, and removed the latter from 
all participation in public affairs. Such was not 
the temper of Philip II. Possibly, too, the senate 
may have overstrained its rights in its elation at 
the advantages it had won. At any rate there is 
extant a paper of Philip's, full of violent invectives 
against the senate. He says it forced matters 
before its tribunal upon which it was not compe- 
tent to judge ; that it violated decrees and consti- 
tutions ; it recognized no law but its own arbitrary 
will; it punished small offences with severity, and 
overlooked great ones; its justice was excessively 
slow. Philip determined to curtail its rights. He 
forbade it its open protestation against the gover- 
nor's acts of grace, alleging that it was derogatory 
to the royal authority. He made the magistrates 
more independent of the senate ; all complaints 
against the former should be addressed directly to 
the governor. He forbade the senators to interfere 
with the marriage of wealthy heiresses ; if any in- 
terference was requisite in such cases it should 
come from the governor alone. " This," he 
concludes, " shall be an inviolable law, command, 
and decree; as such it is given, as such shall it be 
accepted, held, and executed +." 

Thus did Philip give judgment in the contest in 
favour of the governor, though not so as to render 
the power of the latter unlimited. The right of 
issuing arbitrary decrees, or of directly interfering 
with the tribunals, was not conceded to him ; the 
Milanese continued quietly to enjoy the protection 
of their laws, and of their senate. 

Hie Archbishop, 

But it came to pass that a third power rose up 
beside these two, which obstructed them both, 
and against which they made common cause. This 
was the archbishop. 

We are familiar with the archbishops of Milan, 
who claimed the first place in the general councils 

* Scipio di Castro, Avvertimenti. It is remarkable that 
William of Orange in his " Verantwoording," ascribes Gon- 
zaga's mischance to the envy of Granvella. 

t Ordini dati nuovamente di Sua Maesta Catolica al Senato 
Eccelentissimo di Milano, of the 17th April, 1581. Originally 
in Spanish. Italian Ordines, p. 109. 



THE ARCHBISHOP. 



75 



on the pope's right hand *; -who were so influential 
from the very first in their own city, that very 
many persons refer to them the whole growth of 
the duchy's greatness + ; and who, when they hap- 
pened to be men like Heribert, and like those two 
Viseonti, Otho and Giovanni, by whom the whole 
greatness of that house was established, might 
easily attain to really princely dignity. Was it 
likely the Spaniards should regard the renewal of 
so influential a power within the walls of Milan as 
a riling to be desired ] Xo doubt it was a very wel- 
come circumstance to them, that archbishop Hip- 
polito d'Este never took up his residence in the 
city. They contrived too to keep his successor 
Archinto away from Milan up to the day of his 
death. But Archinto's successor. Carlo B rromeo, 
was far more to be feared. What if that man, 
backed as he was by the renown of a life blameless 
to sainthood, should avail himself of the personal 
credit he enjoyed, to restore the fallen grandeur of 
the archiepiscopal see X ] What if he should turn 
to account the general tendency of his times to 
tighten the reins of church discipline, a tendency, 
originally indeed created by the protestants, and ' 
first fully realized in Geneva, but which had now 
extended among the catholics likewise. — what if he 
should apply this to the end of bringing the laity I 
into complete subjection to the Church and its 
jurisdiction I 

If we reflect that nothing was so well adapted to ' 
counteract such an influence as the Spanish inqui- 
sition, for the very reason that it was of a kindred 
nature with it, while, at the same time, it was so 
totally dependent on the king: and, moreover, that i 
Philip made the attempt to introduce it just at this 
time, namely, in the year 1563. we may well ask, 
was he indeed disposed to make use of it against 
the authority of the archbishop ! 

The attempt failed however. When the duke 
of Sessa, the then governor, published the names 
of the first inquisitors, a tumult broke out, nearly in 
the same way as in Naples. The people shouted, 
K Long live the king '. Death to the inquisition !" I 
They had on their side then- senate and their I 
bishops, and even the fathers of the council of 
Trent, the cardinals, and the pope. The duke and j 
the kin; found themselves obliged to withdraw 
their institution §. 

Two years after this Carlo Borromeo arrived in 
Milan, and at first he appeared to be on the best 
terms with the governor, who received him with | 
solemnity jl. But when, not content with reform- . 
ing churches and churchmen, monks and nuns, he 
proceeded to curtail the public amusements, to 

* Antonius Saxius, Archiepiscoporum Mediolanensium 
Series, p. 423. 

t Leoni: "Si pud dire che dalli arcivescovi cominciasse 
la grandezza del dominio." 

J Leoni says of him, "Paragonando la pieta Christiana 
alia grandezza temporale, si puo dire che non minor riputa- 
tione habbia conseguito questa sede archiepiscopale dalla 
voloutaria poverta, di questa devota memoria del Cardinale 
di S. Prassede, che da quanti la resero mai con li maggiori 
titoli di potenza et d'autorita secolare." 

§ Llorente, Histoire de l'lnquisition. ii. 193. Thuanus, 
lib. 36, p. 719. For the senate's proclamation, see Natalis 
Comes. Historiarum Mb. 14, p. 312. For the best and most 
authentic information, see Pallavicini, Histor. Concil. Tri- 
dent, lib. 22, cap. 8. 

|| Ex literis Borromei, Terri, ii. 376. 



insist on a stricter observation of the fasts, and to 
keep watch over the sanctity of marriage, in a word, 
to direct his attention to the fives of laymen as 
well as of ecclesiastics j when he clung with the 
most unyielding pertinacity to his jurisdictional 
rights, published new laws, and provided himself 
with an armed force to give them effect, a violent 
opposition instantly arose ; the royal functionaries 
eomplained that then- orders were brought into 
contempt ; they caused servants of the archbishop 
to be arrested and punished with the cord, and his 
palace to be surrounded with soldiers ; Borromeo 
on his part encountered them with ban and 
curse *. 

Borromeo was the victor in this conflict. It 
demands a certain strength of mind to march with 
so firm a tread in the warfare between spiritual 
and secular pretensions, that the combatant feel 
not at last some scruples of conscience. The duke 
of Albuquerque, the then governor, had no such 
force of mind ; he was reduced to the extremity of 
beseeching pardon of pope Pius V. He only ob- 
tained it upon presenting an explanation, respecting 
which he neither consulted his privy council nor 
the senate, and which he did not venture to record 
in the public archives ; an explanation which satis- 
fied the ecclesiastical functionaries, and tied up the 
king's hands f. 

But the matter did not end here. The new go- 
vernors began the contest anew ; sometimes it was 
provoked on the part of Spain ; the pope and the 
king interchanged unfriendly letters. But there 
exists in a moral tendency truly and deeply im- 
planted in the mind, a power that not only van- 
quishes foes, but even calms them. It was found 
after all that Borromeo devoted himself wholly as 
a true bishop to his spiritual duty ; he was seen clay 
and night, whilst the plague was raging, rendering 
at once bodily and spiritual aid in the streets, and 
in the dwellings of the poor, stripping his house 
bare and giving up his own bedj: the conviction 
was felt that he had no merely secular purposes 
in view, that his only desire was to renovate his 
church and to gather together his scattered flock. 
Towards his opponents he invariably displayed a 
fatherly good will, and he inspired them with reve- 
rence even in the heat of contest. Hence matters 
already assumed a certain state of equihbrium 
during his time, and in that of his successor, Gaspar 
Viseonti, all strife seemed ended. 

But Frederick Borromeo, the next archbishop 

» Laderchii Annales Ecclesiastici ab anno 1566, p. 103. 
Natalis Comes, lib. 24, p. 531. Rippamonte, Historia Urbis 
Mediolani, p. S15 : the best authority. Saxius, 1047 — super- 
ficial. 

t This very important point, not known to other writers, 
not even to Catena (Vita di Pio T. p. 144), whose purpose it 
would have suited, is mentioned by Don Juan Telasco alone 
(al Rev nuestro Seiior. MS.). He tells how the people made 
a punning epigram upon the duke, whose Christian name 
was Gabriel, and on two of his councillors, Gabriel Casato 
and Herrera, on whom they laid the blame of the affair : 
" Du' garbui ed un error 
Faran perd el stad al nost signor." 

t The special ground of his canonization. It is especially 
dwelt upon in the To turn Snai D. X. D. Pauli T. in the MS. 
li Tota seu suffragia Illmoram e t Revmorum DD. S. R. E. 
Cardinalium, Patriarcharum, Archiepiscoporum, et Episcopo- 
rum, super canonisatione Beati Caroli Cardinalis Borromei 
olim Archiepiscopi Mediolanensis, celebrata Romas in Basi- 
lica S. Petri prima Xov 1610." 



76 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



after Visconti, who seems to have stood to Carlo 
in the relation of an imitator to his original, more 
intent upon externals than the latter, more obsti- 
nate and narrow-minded, and destitute of the con- 
ciliating blandness of genius, provoked the slum- 
bering discord again. He found in the post of 
governor Juan Velasco, a Spaniard, proud of the 
name of a Christian cavalier, of his descent from 
the first grandees of Castile, and of his position in 
the service of his king. Velasco has very charac- 
teristically expressed this in his own words. " By 
God's grace," he says, " I am sprung whence I am 
sprung, was brought up where I was brought up, 
and serve whom I serve. In how many works of 
piety, how many endowments of hospitals and con- 
vents, has the munificence of my ancestors been 
illustriously displayed ! There is not a hill nor a 
valley in Castile where my ancestors have not shed 
their blood for the catholic faith." Was a man like 
this, so singularly imbued with the religious, the 
ancestral, and the personal pride of the Spaniard, 
likely to bend to the archbishop ? Would he take 
it quietly when the latter denied him the custom- 
ary place of honour in the church, or had meaner 
cushions laid for him on occasions of religious so- 
lemnity ? They were soon hotly at war with each 
other. The archbishop would not tolerate any 
dancing in the country on Sundays, or any theatri- 
cal performances in the city. The governor insisted 
that the poor peasant, who toiled through the week 
in digging and ploughing, could not dispense with 
the one, nor the citizen with the other, unless he 
would neglect his business on working days *. The 
archbishop would have the agriculturists on church 
estates freed from the services to which others of 
the rural population were liable : the governor 
made the magistrates proceed with all the rigour 
of the law against the recusants. Whilst Frederick 
Borromeo evoked before his tribunal all suits in 
which either a clergyman was concerned or an 
ecclesiastical law infringed, and filled his prisons 
with laymen, Velasco issued proclamations threat- 
ening the violators of the secular jurisdiction with 
arbitrary punishment, proclamations so severe and 
peremptory that the subjects, almost of their own 
accord, desisted from appearing before ecclesiastical 
courts. The priests then had recourse to personal 
measures. The vicar, Antonio Seneca, who took 
the most active part in these proceedings, excommu- 
nicated the president Manoquio, an otherwise irre- 
proachable old man. Borromeo himself grappled 
with the governor. He appointed prayers to be 
read similar to those offered up during Diocletian's 
persecution, and the priest of a church, in which 
Velasco made his appearance, placed himself near 
the governor and chaunted the prayer in a parti- 
cularly audible voice. Borromeo summoned his 
synod, had resolutions passed against the governor, 
and caused threatening remonstrances to be ad- 
dressed to him. But Velasco was quite impracti- 
cable. In vain monks passed backwards and for- 
wards day and night, between the two palaces, to 
reconcile the incensed rivals. At last the archbi- 
shop's monitories, threatening the governor with ex- 

* Don Juan de Velasco al Rey nuestro Senor. He dwells 
particularly on theatrical performances. " Por bandos par- 
ticulars han dado a los farsantes los Governadores conve- 
nientes ordenes respecto de los vestidos, subjectos, palabras 
y movimientos, mandando que en las quaresmas, viernas y 
pasquas del afio no si represente." 



communication, were seen one morning posted up 
at the street corners and on the churches. 

The whole country was now in commotion. No 
other subject was talked of in the public lounges 
and assemblies, and in public despatches. Velasco 
boasts of the fidelity displayed in this matter by 
Milan, "a city as devoted to the king as any of 
the most faithful in the whole empire *." To be 
sure its loyalty was put to no very trying test, 
when it was considered a proof of attachment to 
the royal cause to play a showy part in the cele- 
bration of the carnival. But the excitement was 
so considerable, that some old antagonists of the 
Spanish dominion already conceived hopes of a 
political change, and entered into correspondence 
with France. Did it not seem indeed matter for 
grave reflection, that the clergy removed from some 
places the portraits of the principe and the infanta 
as being too profane 1 

The governor suddenly put an end to all this. 
He too, as well as Albuquerque, turned to the pope, 
but the latter was no Pius V., and Velasco had no 
thought of soliciting absolution. His king had 
already interceded for him. Velasco says, that 
through the gracious hearing accorded his envoys 
by Clement VIII. and his nephew Aldobrandino, 
through the support of the duke of Sessa, then at 
Rome, but above all, by force of the truth which 
these mediators defended, he succeeded in dispers- 
ing the mists and bringing forth the bright sun- 
shine of justice. Two days before the threatened 
excommunication was to have taken effect, letters 
arrived from Rome to stop the act. And now, 
Velasco boasts a year afterwards, his holiness is 
satisfied, his majesty is served, and the city and 
state of Milan are edifyingly administered; justice 
takes its free course. 

Such was the struggle in this province between 
the spiritual and the secular power. At last a com- 
promise was concluded between the two in the year 
1615, but I cannot say that it appeal's to me to 
have been of a satisfactory nature f. In any case, 
the independence of the archiepiscopal see must 
have proved a continued source of division, and 
have thwarted and impeded the growth of an unli- 
mited power. 

The Communes. 

A strange form of constitution in truth was that 
of Milan, in which public liberty was not secured by 
regular institutions, but by the antagonism between 
the superior powers. Nevertheless, the communes, 
which constituted the real body of the state, still 
retained some remnant of those immunities for 
which they had once shed so much of their blood. 

Up to the beginning of the Spanish rule, the 
communes were so independent of each other, that 
in no district could real property be acquired by a 
freeman of another district %. The communes still 
retained a considerable share in the administration 
of justice within themselves in these several dis- 

* Velasco al Rey. " La ciudad estava muy escandalizada 
y offendida: la nobleza, ciudadanos y todo el pueblo. Jun- 
taron su consejo general, y en voz comun se resintieron con 
el cardenal con palabras vivas." The rest is from the same 
report. 

t Concordia jurisdictionalis inter forum ecclesiasticum et 
forum seculare, c x. Ordines Sen. Med. 

X Novelli, Storia di Como, iii. c. ii. 15, from an edict of 
1539. 



THE COMMUNES. 



77 



tricts. Every half year there were elected by lot 
four consuls of justice from the two colleges of 
native doctors and causidici, of the former of which 
there were twelve, of the latter fourteen, about the 
year 1550, at Como. These consuls went in their 
togas every day to the tribunal in the palace to 
hold their judicial sittings *. Every year in May 
a judge travelled, by order of his commune, 
through the highways and byeways of the district, 
to see to the repairing of the roads, bridges, and 
embankments by the villages and localities upon 
which that duty devolved. It was left to the towns 
to collect the mensuale in the manner they found 
most convenient. In contrast with the general 
body of the state, they held fast by the unity of a 
close corporation. They were not content with 
sending one of their number to Milan as often as 
their affairs required it ; they had also their regu- 
lar representatives, their oratori, there, who were 
bound, in consideration of the salaries they re- 
ceived, to act as the advocates, attorneys, and 
solicitors of their respective towns, and who were 
wont, when any general question was to be dis- 
cussed, to assemble in a congregation under the 
presidency of their Milanese colleague. This con- 
gregation no doubt occupied but a subordinate 
position, but still it always enjoyed a certain con- 
sideration; for instance, in the year 1548 the men- 
suale was not imposed till the congregation had 
first been satisfied of its necessity. But not unfre- 
quently even single towns, particularly Cremona, 
offered obstinate resistance to the governor. The 
Cremonese never looked to the example of any 
other town ; they always acted upon their own 
devices; they never yielded in any point to the 
governor or the Spanish settlers. In the year 1585, 
the duke of Terranuova had come to a tolerably 
satisfactory arrangement with the other towns re- 
specting a new donative, but he never could gain 
the consent of Cremona. " They were their sove- 
reign's most faithful vassals; they were ready to 
serve him with their lives and substance; but they 
were not minded that the governor should ingra- 
tiate himself with their king at their cost, and with- 
out their receiving any credit for the same." They 
contrived to prevent the donative, and they en- 
joyed so much consideration, that the other towns 
on all occasions made it their first business to see 
what Cremona would do *f\ 

Now if there is obvious herein undoubtedly a 
remnant of municipal independence, the question 
is, who were they in whom this was specially 
invested ? We still meet repeatedly with the demo- 
cratic name, Conseglio Generale ; was this general 
council identical with the old one \ 

We must confess it was not so ; the fact is 
evident from the example of Milan. There we see 
the still somewhat democratic element giving way 

* Ibid. iii. c. ii. 66, 227, from the Ordinazioni of the city. 
For the consuls of justice in Milan, two from the college of 
doctors, four from the college of notaries, see Statuta Medio- 
lani, cap. 55. The colleges proposed the candidates, the 
sovereign nominated them. 

t Leoni : " II popolo di Cremona di bravura tra ogni altro 
dello stato Milanese pare che tenga il primo vanto. E con- 
stantissimo nelle sue risoluzioni le quali pretende et si sforza 
di far maturamente, et perd e quello che nelT occasioni, o 
particolari della citta o publiche dello stato, fa sempre testa 
ne si lascia tirare dall' autorita ne di Milano ne d'altro 
luogo." 



with extraordinary rapidity to a completely aristo- 
cratic system. When the general council assembled 
in the year 1512, on a green between the market 
and the new gate, it certainly did not consist of a 
great popular multitude, but it still numbered nine 
hundred members. Even then it appeared indeed 
that the resolutions adopted were dictated by the 
few rather than by the many *. But who could 
have foreseen, that but six years afterwards, this 
council should have dwindled down to a sixth of 
what it then numbered % An election of the general 
council took place in the year 1516 ; twenty-five 
members were chosen for each of the six gates, ha 
all one hundred and fifty. And yet even this 
council was thought too numerous by the French. 
On the 1st of July, 1518, Lautrec, governor for 
Francis I., in Milan, named sixty persons of noble 
blood to constitute the conseglio generale +. To 
these was transferred all the power that belonged 
to the communes. 

Something similar took place in the other towns 
likewise. We find a general council in Como also. 
It assembled at least every Monday and Friday 
under the presidency of a podesta. Every man was 
at liberty to speak his sentiments in his turn, and 
that even twice. The votes were taken by means 
of balls differently coloured, and the majority 
decided J. But there are two points to be remarked 
on this head. In the first place the number of this 
council was continually made less and less. In the 
beginning of the sixteenth century there were a 
hundred ordinary and fifty supernumerary decu- 
rioni. These hundred and fifty were reduced in 
the year 1534 to seventy-five, in the year 1583 to 
sixty, in 1614 to fifty, and lastly, in 1638, to forty §. 
The more important affairs were managed by a 
committee of twelve, presided over by a doctor of 
noble birth. Secondly, it was noticed that the 
decurionate fell entirely into the hands of certain 
families. The fact of being a member of the gene- 
ral council was often advanced as a proof in corro- 
boration of the evidences of nobility called for on 
many occasions ||. This abuse was the more in- 
curable, inasmuch as the council filled up the 
vacancies in its own body. 

The same thing happened in other towns, as in 
Milan and Como. Leoni tells us, in the year 1589, 
that every town in the duchy had usually a council 
of sixty members for the management of its inter- 
nal affairs (that of Como just then consisted of 
this number), but that the chief controul was 
exercised by twelve of their body, whom he names 
distinctively decurioni. 

Now, this remnant of municipal independence 
had an important bearing on the whole state. The 
towns possessed a power, not merely defensive, 
but even actively influential on the conduct of 
the government. The chief places succeeded in 
filling the senate with their own citizens. In the 
year 1547, Como, desiring for itself a firm footing 

* Arluni de Bello Veneto, v. 204. In the Statuta Medio- 
lanensia, p. ii. cap. iii. under the title De Consilio Nongen- 
torum Virorum Communis Mediolani, published in the year 
1502, it is stated, that the Nine Hundred were chosen by 
the sovereign "de melioribus et utilioribus." 

t Verri, Storia di Milano, from MSS. ii. 170, 171. 

t Novelli from the Ordinazioni of 1567, iii. c. ii. 75, 76. 

§ Ibid. iii. c. i. 472; ii. 109. 153. 181. 

|| Novelli from the Ordinazioni of 1577, 1588, and 1591, 
iii. c. ii. 117 



78 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



in the senate, appealed to the example of the other 
towns, which were already in the enjoyment of 
that advantage. Accordingly, for a century and a 
half from that date, we always meet with a citizen 
of Como in the senate. In the year 1560 that city 
had also a place of quaestor in the magistracy, 
occupied by one of its own people *. Leoni informs 
us that a place in the senate was accorded to every 
chief town in the duchy, not by virtue of any law, 
nor even by virtue of any very ancient usage, but 
in consequence of a certain sense of convenience. 
Now this must have been of vast advantage to the 
towns, seeing what a considerable portion of the 
whole government was in the senate's hands. 

While such were the mutual relations in this 
state between governor and senate, associations 
and communes, soldiers and inhabitants, there 
was also a court in which both elements were 
combined, namely, a consulta connected with the 
governor. This privy council, consisting of the 
superior officers of the troops and of the presidents 
of the tribunals, was in reality invested with the 
care of both interests. The soldiers required to be 
fed and paid; the citizens desired the maintenance 
of their lawful condition. Both objects were effected. 
Much as the citizens complained of the taxes, single 
and double, imposed upon them, and of the light 
and heavy cavalry required of them, they still 
paid their dues. Their independence did not reach 
the length of enabling them to refuse this. But 
so much power at least they had, that though their 
rights and laws might not be preserved utterly 
inviolate, at any rate not in every individual case, 
or when especially persons of inferior considera- 
tion were concerned, still they were on the whole 
maintained and enforced f. 

So it was at least under Philip II. But how, 
when these frontiers were directly approached with 
arms in the seventeenth century, when war was 
levied against Savoy, against the Valtellina, and to 
settle the disturbances in Montferrat, and lastly, 
when the country became entangled in all the per- 
plexities of the thirty years' war? The military 
element then gained the ascendancy over the 
pacific ; the royal court neglected the practice of 
inspecting and controuling the provincial adminis- 
tration ; the Spaniards assumed in Milan, as else- 
where in Italy, an oppressive predominance ; to 
scarcity and disease were added the intolerable 
burthens of military contributions, and the quar- 
tering of troops on the inhabitants. Many a 
Milanese then wished that Don Philip II., of bless- 
ed memory, might rise again from the dead, and 
live as long as the world stood J ! 

VI. The Netherlands. 
All things considered, it cannot be said that the 
Netherlands enjoyed particular freedom under the 
house of Burgundy, and under Charles V. 

* Novelli, iii. c. ii. 28, and in other places. 

t Leoni : " Patiscono come possono al meglio la signoria 
de Spagnuoli, all' humor de quali per la lunga assuefattione 
hanno di maniera accommodato l'animo, che da quel desi- 
derio impoi ch' e naturale in ogni popolo, di veder mutatione, 
si pu6 dire che vivono non in tutto mal contenti sotto il 
governo del re di Spagna.— Sono governati con qualche dol- 
cezza maggiore che li Napolitani, conoscendo che la natura 
Lombarda piu mansueta che la Napolitana ha anco bisogna 
di minor asprezza." 

I Li vasalli della Maesta del re catolico nello stato di 



Monarchical Authority. 

Here too we have to deal with the three estates. 
The clergy who filled the higher places were nearly 
all nominated by the sovereign, as was likewise the 
case with the majority of the inferior clergy. With- 
out his permission they durst neither admit any 
command from Rome, or acquire a new property 
any where *. The lord had only restricted rights 
over his vassals, more restricted than those directly 
exercised by the sovereign f: he served the latter 
in peace and war; how then should he have been 
independent % Lastly, we must admit that the 
sovereign exercised an influence also over the 
internal administration of the towns. Antwerp, 
which pretended to be very free, was not at 
liberty for all that to nominate its own schoeppen, 
or local justices ; a council consisting chiefly of the 
senior justices proposed two for each place at the 
yearly nomination; but the selection and the nomi- 
nation were left to the sovereign. Even the bur- 
gomasters were elected in conformity with the so- 
vereign's views. Now, if we reflect that upon these 
burgomasters and schoeppen, the choice of the pre- 
sidents of the wicks, and that of the fifty-four pre- 
sidents of the guilds, was so far at least dependent 
that they decided on one out of three candidates, 
we shall see how deep down the influence of the 
government could extend £. In Brussels the court 
yearly nominated the seven schoeppen out of the 
seven septs ; in most of the towns there were old 
colleges of councillors, called Breede Raade or 
Vroetschappen, which proposed two of their mem- 
bers as candidates for every schoeppe's place ; the 
nomination rested with the court. The court had 
influence likewise over the college of councillors in 
Rotterdam; it caused three names to be presented 
to it for each vacant place, aud selected one of 
them §. The consequence of the insurrection in 
Ghent, in 1539, was that on the 10th of May, every 
year, the court put whomsoever it pleased into the 
twenty-six places of the schoeppen ||. As far as 
I can discover, there was but one place, Valen- 
ciennes, which still possessed a general assembly, 
but I do not find that it was of much importance. 
Such then was the composition of the estates ; 
clergy named by the king ; nobles in his service ; 
burgomasters scarcely ever chosen without his 
interference. 

This state of things paved the way — it could not 
have been otherwise — for the establishment of the 
new constitution in this country. The supreme 
authority had no little influence on the judicial 
body, high and low. It nominated the schoeppen 
in the towns, by whom justice was locally admi- 
nistered ; and it appointed and deposed at pleasure 
the schultheissen or bailiffs connected with the 
former, whose duty it was to look to the sovereign's 
rights and the laws, the prosecution of the guilty, 

Milano alia santissima et gloriosissima vergine Maria, MS. 
An essay not so prolix as its title. 

* Guicciardini, Descriptio Belgii generalis, Amsterdam, 
1660, p. 85, and Compendio degli Stati et Governi di Fiandra, 
Informatt. i. p. 95, MS. 

t Ibid. Descriptio Belgii particularis, p. 256. 

J Ibid. p. 171. 

§ De Laet, Belgii confcederati, Respublica Hollandia, cap 
vi. p. 83. 88. Cf. Philip a Zesen, Leo Belgicus, p. 148. 
|| Additamentum ad Guicciard. Descriptionem, p. 343. 



THE NETHERLANDS.— PROVINCIAL RIGHTS. 



10 



and the execution of judicial sentences*. The 
provincial courts, snch as the council of Flanders, 
the chancery of Brabant, and the court of Holland, 
courts not only of appeal, but charged also with 
some portion of the duties of government, received 
from it then' functionaries and their salaries. Here 
and there it was even allowed to admit foreigners 
to seats on the tribunals : two at least in that of 
Brabant, and in that of Friesland all the members 
but four might be foreigners +. Over all these 
tribunals Charles the Bold had established a su- 
preme one in the great court of Mechlin, which he 
called a parliament. Before it the knights of the 
Golden Fleece were tried. This court was likewise 
wholly dependent on the sovereign. With what- 
ever violence the question was agitated elsewhere, 
whether the members of the supreme courts should 
be appointed by the sovereign or the estates, that 
right was here exercised without dispute by the 
sovereign. He had here too a standing army. Some 
native infantry were always maintained, in addition 
to which Charles V. set apart one hundred and 
eighty thousand ducats a year for six hundred 
lancers, each with five horses J. Whilst these 
armaments afforded the means of keeping the 
nobles employed, and of retaining them in a sort 
of ambitious dependence on the sovereign, Charles 
devised the plan of dividing them into unequal 
companies of thirty, forty, or fifty, by which means 
the occurrence of every vacancy gave him an op- 
portunity for bestowing favour and promotion that 
cost him nothing. This was an institution which 
Marino Cavalio thought especially worthy of imita- 
tion §. Lastly, Charles was in the receipt of con- 
siderable taxes. Soriano estimates the income of 
a few years at twenty-four millions of ducats : 
William of Orange computes the contributions to 
a single war at forty millions [\. 

Provincial Rights. 

Now, if the estates were under the eontroul of 
the sovereign, it' they left the administration of 
justice in his hands, paid him taxes, and main- 
tained troops for him, wherein consisted the free- 
dom of which they boasted ? 

Xo doubt the supreme power has its influence in 
every state, but it always encounters a resistance 
in the local interests. If the sovereign chose the 
schoeppen. on the other hand every town. Ghent 
alone excepted after the insurrection, prescribed to 
him those from among whom he was to choose 
them. Though the before mentioned college of 
councillors had little else left it to do than to take 
the necessary steps in the elections, nevertheless 
the actual government was usually linked with that 
body ; all the officers elected were necessarily 
members thereof ; besides which other members, 
charged with the protection of local rights, were 

* An excursus on this subject in Addit. ad Guicc. Descr. 
p. 429. 

t Ubbo Emmius ap. De Laet, Belgii confcederati Respub- 
lica Frisia, c. 8. 

% Cavalio, Relatione : " Computati li suoi condottieri et 
officiali a ducati 140 per huomo d'arme et 120 per leggieri." 

§ Cavalio : " Con la vacanza senza accrescimento alcuno 
di nuova spesa s'accresce dignita o utile a tre o a quattro 
condottieri : il che saria benissimo fare la Serenita Vostra." 

Soriano : " L'imperatore ba potuto cavaie in 24 millioni 
d'oro in pocbi auni." — Yerantwoording des Princen van 
Oranje, ap. Bor. 



in many places associated with the schoeppen *. 
In Zieriksee there were two burgomasters, one for 
matters pertaining to the jurisdiction of the sove- 
reign, the other for those belonging to that of the 
town; the former was selected from the schoeppen, 
the latter from among the other councillors f. More- 
over, though the sovereign had a share in the con- 
| cems of justice, still he could not alter the laws, 
and every province clung jealously to its own; the 
! North Hollanders to their Asingish law of inherit- 
| ance ; the Groeningers to their peculiar laws of 
debtor and creditor, and the men of Guelders to 
their peculiar feudal usages. Lastly, if he covdd 
exercise an influence over the domestic adminis- 
tration of the provinces, still he was every where 
met by some privilege. Flanders boasted of being 
the freest lordship in the world. Brabant had 
seven invaluable privileges, the last of which was, 
that if the sovereign broke through the rights of 
the country, and did not listen to its remonstrances, 
it should then be absolved from its oath of alle- 
giance J. Mechlin was free from all imposts for 
subsidies upon the real estates of its inhabitants. 
Holland and Zealand relied on the great charter 
granted them by the daughter of Charles the Bold. 
Just about the middle of the sixteenth century the 
provinces took up the question of their privileges 
with renovated zeal; they brought forth the genuine 
documents dispersed, through registries, chanceries, 
and convents, and put them in better order ; they 
hesitated in disputed cases to impart the originals 
to the court §. They aimed at no unconditional 
authority ; they had no desire for unrestricted free- 
dom ; but their privileges seemed to them a pro- 
perty, as much so as any material possession of the 
community, and they would not part with them. 

When these estates assembled at the sovereign's 
summons, they listened in common to the proposals 
laid before them; but when the time was come to 
discuss these, they separated province by province, 
j each deputy mindful of the privileges of his own. 
Now, many of these committees were only em- 
powered to hear and to report at home ; others 
[ demanded a gratuity for their assent, and it was 
j always some extension of rights they required : 
i others again were flatly resolved on opposition, 
j They were agreed only on one thing, that, unless 
confirmed eventually by a general vote, no assent 
I previously given was at all binding. The governor 
had often to treat with the several states, with the 
several towns, and it must be admitted that the 
I example of the consenting majority had a certain 
| influence on the recusants. Sometimes however the 
governor found himself compelled to grant some 
new immunity ; sometimes he had even to forego 
his plans ||. 

* Decretum ordinum Hollandiee et "Westfrisias de antiquo 
jure reipublicee Batavicee. in the work entitl-ed Respublica 
Hollandia? et Urbes, Lugd. 1630, p. 148. 

t Additam. ad. Guicc. torn. iii. p. 171. 

J Among others Meter, Niederl. Historie, torn. i. p. 6S. 

§ Wagenaar, Allg. Geschichte der Yereinigten Nieder- 
lande, torn. i. p. 54S. 

|] From the Examples of the transactions of the estates in 
"Wagenaar, Giucciaxdini Descr. gener. Hugo Grotius de An- 
tiquitate Reipublica? Bataviae, p. 62. Soriano: " Si tratta 
prima con li principali delle citta et degli stati et poiche 
questi sono persuasi, chi con parole, chi con promesse et 
altri con premii, son seguitati dagl' altri. Cosi sono stati 
aggravati da' sussidii li paesi bassi." 



80 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



Balance of the Constitution. 

Upon this antagonism between the central and 
the local authorities, an antagonism so character- 
ized that there was, if not constant strife, at least 
perpetual jealousy between the highest courts and 
those of the provinces, between the latter and the 
schoeppen of" the towns, between the schoeppen and 
the sovereign's schultheiss on the one hand, and the 
common councils on the other, and lastly, between 
the councils and the guilds and communes ; — upon 
this antagonism, and, above all, upon the natural 
opposition between the state authority and the pro- 
vincial rights, rested the balance of the constitution. 
The sovereign usually obtained the money he re- 
quired, but it cost him pains to procure it ; he could 
not conceal from himself the fact that the subject had 
the power of refusing it. Charles V. was used to 
say he would concede liberties and immunities to 
his territories, but they should not chaffer with 
him. Upon this the country would answer, that it 
would support him with ample supplies, but of its 
own free will; only he should not arbitrarily burden 
it. They, both the sovereign and the country, had 
their respective rights ; the act of homage consisted in 
their swearing reciprocally to these. The sovereign 
swore " truly and sincerely to observe all statutes, 
privileges, briefs, exemptions and immunities, all 
justiciary and manorial rights, all town laws, land 
laws, water laws, and all customs of the province, 
old and new." The inhabitants swore " to be, in 
consideration thereof, good and lawful subjects to 
him, to guard him from hurt, to provide for his 
advantage, and to preserve his sovereign autho- 
rity *." They swore to uphold each other's rights 
and claims ; but whereas the monarch was given 
two titles, viz. sovereign prince and natural lord; 
the former was more pleasing to the monarch, 
because it seemed to infer a more absolute right; 
the latter was more acceptable to the people, 
because apparently involving the idea of a limita- 
tion founded on custom and prescriptive rights. 
Even the small towns of Holland were used to 
close a petition with the words, " Thus doing your 
imperial majesty will do right f." 

Misunderstandings under Philip. 

In such a state of equilibrium was the adminis- 
tration of the Netherlands in the times of Charles V. 
Philip II. however resolved to give the sovereign's 
authority the preponderance. 

Wherever Philip II. looked around him he saw 
his authority in his other dominions based chiefly 
on a considerable addition of Spanish, or rather 
Castilian material, to the old stock of government. 
He had there Spanish viceroys with their own 
privy councils, independent of the respective coun- 
tries; he had along with them Spanish troops and 
Spanish functionaries; he had there the inquisition, 
which acknowledged a supreme head in Castile. 
True, these means and instruments of dominion 
had not been fully introduced into any country. 

* Oath taken at Antwerp and Valenciennes on the occa- 
sion of tendering allegiance to Philip, in Guicciardini. Eed 
gedaen en Groningen un Byvoegsel van autentyke Stukken, 
Bor, Nederlandsche Oorlogen, ed. of 1679. 

t Wagenaar, ii. 537. 



Sicily preserved itself from Spanish functionaries ; 
Milan and Naples succeeded in keeping out the 
inquisition : but either of these was singly enough 
to keep a country in perfect allegiance. 

What, then, if the attempt were made to effect 
similar measures in the Netherlands too ? 

There can be no doubt that Philip entertained 
this purpose. Contrary to all the laws of the country, 
he designed to leave the Spanish troops there during 
peace, the presence of which had been rendered 
necessary by war *. When he committed the go- 
vernment to his sister Margaret, he appointed in- 
deed with her a council of state consisting chiefly of 
native nobles ; but he crippled the powers of that 
council, not only by establishing along with it an 
independent privy council under a president who 
could be implicitly relied on, Viglius van Zuichem, 
but he also instructed Margaret that in difficult cases 
she should only consult and hearken to the most 
trusty members, especially Granvella, bishop of 
Arras, taking their advice in a privy consulta, such 
as was usual at the king's court, and those of the 
viceroys f. Finally, if he still avoided putting 
forward the name of the Spanish inquisition, still 
he made so many innovations in ecclesiastical 
affairs, he so rigorously enforced and aggravated 
the old edicts against heretics, that every one was 
persuaded he would introduce that institution, and 
a rumour that he had already obtained a bull to 
that end from Pius IV., gained unhesitating and 
entire credence J. 

Whilst the king thus resolved to reduce the 
Netherlands to the same footing of obedience as 
his other provinces, was it likely the country 
should second his purpose with alacrity ? The lead- 
ing men of rank, men whose fortunes had been 
founded in the civil and military service of 
Charles V., set themselves against it. 

Three things seem more particularly to have de- 
termined them. Whereas, in the beginning of the 
reign of Charles V., nobles of the Netherlands had 
ruled the whole empire, and had afterwards been 
forced to share at least with Castilians all the 
influence accorded them by the sovereign, it now 
turned out, as every one must have expected from 
Philip, that he excluded the men of the Nether- 
lands from all participation in the government of 
the empire. The Castilians had rebelled against 
the Belgian administration under Charles V. Eg- 
mont could fairly compare his services in the field 
and in the cabinet with those performed by Alva. 
Count Hoorn had formerly stood as high at the 
court of Philip as Feria ; they both commanded 
body guards of his, the former the archers, the 
latter the Spaniards §. But now Alva and Feria 
sat in the king's council of state; Egmont and 
Hoorn were of little account. Spaniards and Ne- 

* Tiepolo, Relatione di Spagna. "II re fece gagliardissimo 
sforzo, perche si contentassero i Fiamenghi, che restasse 
nelle fortezze piu principali per guardia di esse 3000 Spa- 
gnuoli." 

t Strada de Bello Belgico, Vienna, 1754, i. p. 25. The 
same thing is mentioned by Burgundus. 

% Tiepolo : " Oltre che havevano per cosa sicurissima che 
Sua Catolica Maesta haveva ottenuto da Pio IV. un breve 
col quale voleva mettere la inquisitione in quei stati per 
ridurli in quella stretta obedienza che le sono Spagnuoli. 
Da che venivano essi a perdere totalmente l'autorita et la 
liberta solita et gli antiquissimi privilegii suoi." 

§ Sandoval, Carlos V. lib. xxx. p. 657. 



THE TROUBLES. 81 



therlanders had been equal and alike jealous of 
each other in the service of Charles ; but now the 
Spaniards were granted a predominant considera- 
tion *. 

But this was not all. The people of the Nether- 
lands not only saw themselves excluded from pub- 
lic affairs, but beheld their own country threatened 
with a foreign administration. When Montigny 
was afterwards despatched to Spain, he did not 
conceal what it was the nobles of the Netherlands 
most dreaded. When they became aware that the 
barons in the Italian provinces were reduced to a 
condition of mere, insignificance, they feared that 
the Spaniards would fain bring them too to the 
same footing ; they saw, too, every preparation 
taken by the king to that end; hence, Montigny 
owned, proceeded the whole discontent of the 
nobles f. Here that peculiar propensity of the 
Netherlander for local exclusiveness came in play. 
In like manner as each several province claimed 
to be governed only by its own natives, a claim 
occasionally indeed, but only occasionally disre- 
garded, so they would not have any foreigner, any 
Spaniard, admitted to a place in the general go- 
vernment of the provinces at large. This was so 
vehemently insisted on, that the king is said to 
have exclaimed, "I too am a Spaniard; do they 
mean to reject me also 1" 

Lastly, personal connexions also produced in 
this case their natural result, particularly those of 
the prince of Orange. When it was first discussed to 
whom the administration of the Netherlands should 
be entrusted, the prince of Orange wished to see it 
in the hands of Christina, duchess of Lorraine, 
niece of the deceased emperor, a neighbour, and 
one familiarized with the national habits. He 
hoped to make her daughter his wife, whereby he 
would have been sure of obtaining the greatest in- 
fluence over the government. But others probably 
feared this as much as he desired it. Granvella and 
Alva were for the emperor's natural daughter, 
Margaret, who had lived upwards of twenty years 
in Italy, and who was regarded as a more trusty 
Spaniard. This party prevailed; it caused Mar- 
garet to be appointed governess, and even pre- 
vented the marriage which the prince was seek- 
ing J. This was enough to put Granvella and 
Orange at open enmity. But soon after the prince 
brought home a wife from that Saxon house which 
had dashed the emperor's fortunes ; and thence- 
forth a bell was heard at the court of Brussels 
summoning to the Lutheran worship §. The ill- 
will between the parties was aggravated, not only 
in consequence of the fact that Granvella, as a 
bishop, approved of all measures that were rigor- 
ously catholic, but also because the princess was 
the grand- daughter of the landgrave, whose family 
ascribed to Granvella everything untoward that 

* Soriano : " I popoli mal contenti per assidue gravezze et 
perche il governo d'ogni cosa che soleva essere in mano sua 
e tutto in mano de Spagnuoli." 

t Hopper, Recueil et Memorial des troubles des Pays bas 
du Roy, chap. ii. 8, makes this remark in the very begin- 
ning of the troubles. Montigny (Hopper, iii. chap. 3, § 100) 
calls it "la vraye ou au moins la principale cause de ces 
maux et alterations." 

X Bentivoglio, Relatione delle provincie unite di Fiandra, 
lib. ii. Relationi del carclinale Bentivoglio; Venetia, 1667, 
p. 21. 

§ Cabrera, Don Felipe segundo, p. 284. 



had befallen their head, and hated him therefore 
with all their hearts. It must, moreover, have 
stirred up ill-blood when Granvella let fall the ob- 
servation, that the distinguished position of the 
prince in Brabant was not consistent with the 
king's dignity*. Was the prince to endure pa- 
tiently that all the power to which he thought 
himself entitled as a native prince, should pass 
into the hands of an alien, and his enemy ? that he 
should be put off with an empty title without real 
authority ? Charles V. had thought otherwise, and 
had reposed a more affectionate confidence in the 
prince than in the bishop. 

Perez asserts that he was acquainted with the 
direct causes of the Flemish troubles, and could 
point them out as distinctly as any one could indi- 
cate the unquestionable sources of a river +. It 
seems to me not improbable that he alludes to 
these and other similar personal circumstances. 

Putting all this together, we find, in the first 
place, that the king's designs involved him in open 
war with his province. He wished to make it as 
submissive as the others; the province, on its part, 
wished to maintain the freedom of which it saw 
itself plundered. He wished to hold the ecclesias- 
tical and the secular administration in more com- 
plete obedience, through the instrumentality of 
functionaries exclusively devoted to himself, and 
of new bishops : the province desired men who 
had a home interest to be at the head of affairs, 
and it thought the old church constitution more 
convenient. The king desired to leave foreign 
soldiers quartered in the country ; the people were 
incensed at the sight of arms after peace had been 
restored. Then we see that the superior functiona- 
ries of state, by whom the allegiance of the country 
should have been cultivated and confirmed, were 
led, by the position of the empire and of the court, 
to adopt the cause of the people instead of that of 
the king. It was the good fortune of the country 
that they but indifferently administered the cen- 
tral and sovereign authority which they should 
have represented, or rather that they looked to the 
advantage of the province. They were the very 
persons who most opposed the king. Let us con- 
sider the course their opposition pursued. 

The Troubles. 

First, they set themselves against what was cer- 
tainly the most alarming thing of all, the leaving 
behind of the troops. The prince of Orange hastened 
home from France for the express purpose of pre- 
venting that design, and he actually succeeded in 
exacting a promise from the king. But how was 
the latter to be brought to fulfil his promise ? Long 
after the term he had himself assigned was expired, 
he set the shrewd wit of the governess to work to 
gloss over the delay J. The natives were resolved 
to force the removal of the troops. The Zealanders 
threatened to break down their dams, and to let 
the sea in upon the country, rather than endure 
the presence of the Spaniards in it. The districts 
refused to contribute subsidies; they refused to pay 
back the money that was taken up in their name ; 

* Vita Viglii ab Aytta Zuichemi in Hoynk van Papend- 
recht, Analect. Belg. i. n. lxx. 

t Perez a un cavallero amigo. Segundas cartas, n. 115, 
p. 143. 

X Strada, de Bello Belgico, iii. p. 49, from the king's letter. 

G 



82 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



nay, they would not furnish the pay of their own 
troops till the Spaniards were gone *. Seeing, 
therefore, the imminent peril of ruin to the finances, 
and pressed by the open resistance of the towns, 
and by a mutiny among the native troops, the king 
gave way. Reluctantly, late, and on compulsion, 
he recalled the troops. 

But another urgent danger manifested itself at 
this moment (1561). At that period the Nether- 
landers saw all the remonstrances they addressed 
to the king, all the arts of policy they tried with 
the pope, to prevent the purposed introduction of 
new bishops remain of no effect. This in itself 
was alarming with regard to the freedom of the 
country, and the old constitution. One of the 
three estates, the ecclesiastical, was injured in its 
property, for it was intended to provide out of this 
for the new bishops; but all three were threatened, 
because the new clergy, more numerous as it was, 
and wholly devoted to the court, would easily sus- 
tain its pretensions to superiority in future assem- 
blies *j\ But it was a still more formidable consi- 
deration, that the new Flemish churches were to 
be formed into a hierarchy, at the head of which was 
to stand that same hated foreigner, who was invest- 
ed at once with the primacy of the bishoprics and 
with the cardinal's purple. He was already the 
actual wielder of the state council's authority ; 
Viglius his friend, nay dependent, managed the 
privy council according to his views ; and now he 
was becoming the head of a clergy which had in 
old ecclesiastical laws strong weapons against all 
who displeased them. All the powers of the admi- 
nistration, of justice, and of the church, were sub- 
servient to him, and in his hands; the distinguished 
rank of a cardinal seemed calculated infallibly to 
exalt him above every assault J. 

The greater the fortune designed for Granvella, 
the greater was to be the resistance it provoked on 
the part of his antagonists. Orange and Egmont, 
who had previously not been on very good terms, 
hastenedto renew their mutual connexion ; they were 
joined by Hoorn. And, first of all, they tried what 
their combined credit could effect with the king. 
They declared to him that the affairs of the country 
could never go on well as long as they were all, in 
the aggregate, in the hands of Granvella ; that he 
was too much detested, his life was not adapted for 
the edification of the people, the country would be 
ruined under him. But these remonstrances, and 
those they addressed to the governess, were all in 
vain §. They resolved to go further. Tiepolo con- 
firms expressly, and with more accuracy of detail, 
what others besides have hinted at. First of all 
Orange, Egmont, Montigny, Hoorn, Bergen, and 

* Arcana Gubernatricis Epistola; Strada, iii. 51. 

t For the manner in which this fear was expressed, see 
Hopper, Recueil, chap. iii. § 8. Viglius calls it "nubecula 
in serenitate." Vita, n. 77. 

J Tiepolo : " Si accrebbe il sospetto che il Re non havesse 
intentione di soggiogarli a fatto, vedendo esser del tutto 
escluso il consiglio loro nelle cose di stato et non esser messo 
in alcuna consideratione di Madama, la quale si adheriva a 
quello del cardinale Granvella et voleva anco che fosse con 
molta severita esseguito, con che si conveniva distruggere 
la autorita sua." 

§ For this letter in the shape in which it was finally drawn 
up, Lettre par diverses fois reformee et corrigee, see Hopper, 
chap. iv. n. 10. The extract in Bentivoglio's Historia della 
guerra di Fiandra, i. c. i. p. 48, is but dubious. 



Megen, united together, nearly in the manner of 
German potentates, and formed a strict league for 
mutual defence against all who should attack any 
one of them, a league to which they admitted others 
also, and to which they pledged themselves by 
solemn oaths *. A sound of perturbation now filled 
the country. It was alleged for certain that Gran- 
vella had said there was no hoping for quiet in the 
provinces till some heads should have fallen ; — that 
it were well the king should come, but with a strong 
army, and with a predetermination to bind the 
necks of the people by force. It was currently 
reported that Granvella had serious designs against 
the prince's life. What a talk there was then of 
foolscaps and and of arrowsheaves on liveries ! 
What a multitude of satires and caricatures were 
circulated ! At last, when not only the three oppo- 
sition leaders declared they must abstain from 
attending the council of state so long as Granvella 
sat in it, but the estates too refused to enter upon 
their proceedings so long as Granvella was the 
mouthpiece of the government t; when a formal 
resistance to the prime minister appeared then 
organised, Margaret likewise bethought her, and 
yielded to her feelings of discontent at being 
obliged thus to play as it were a secondary part: 
accordingly the king at last consented to the remo- 
val of the cardinal. 

Thus the Flemish lords had obtained their first 
and their second objects. They had got rid of the 
troops that threatened their freedom; they were 
quit of the foreigner who had both domineered over 
and threatened them, and whom they had hated 
and feared. What were the means by which they 
obtained this success? Let us mark the facts well. 
They petition, they make remonstrances: nothing- 
is done. But when they begin to offer resistance, 
when the king has reason to apprehend an insur- 
rection, then their desires are complied with. 

After Granvella's removal the lords returned to 
the council. They applied themselves with the 
greatest diligence to business ; they were at their 
posts from an early hour till evening; whilst en- 
deavouring to instruct Margaret, they succeeded 
also in gaining her over to their cause ; standing 
on the best terms with the estates and with the 
people, they hoped to free the country entirely 
from the Spanish influence, and to be able to govern 
it upon their own principles J. 

New difficulties however occurred. While they 
were striving with Granvella the new bishops had 
been introduced into no few places, and invested with 
that ecclesiastical authority so commanding in those 
times, and which they had themselves such good 
reason to regard with jealousy and alarm. Was 

* Tiepolo. "Si strinsero insieme il principe d'Oranges, li 
conti d'Egmont et Horn, il marchese di Berges morto, Mon- 
signor di Montini et il conte di Mega, conseguiti da molti 
altri grandi per l'autorita et dipendentie grandissime cbe 
havevano quelli signori, et conclusero una lega contra'l car- 
dinale predetto a difesa commune contra chi volessero offeii- 
dere alcun di loro, la qual confermarono con solennissimo 
giuramento ; ne si curarono che se non li particolari fossero 
secreti per all hora, ma publicarono questa loro unione fatta 
contro il cardinale." Hopper also, chap. vii. n. 19, mentions 
the "confederation avecq serment tres estroict." Wagenaar 
says the tenor of this league was never divulged ; iii. 49. 
Tiepolo gives some information though not complete. 

t Vita Viglii, n. 82. 

I Hopper, Partie seconde, ch. i. n. 20. 



THE TROUBLES. 



83 



not Granvella, even though removed, still arch- 
bishop and primate of the national church ? More- 
over, the court of the privy council was still swayed 
in the same spirit as had prevailed under Gran- 
vella's rule. Their foe's administration had struck 
such deep root that its influence was not to be 
annihilated at once by the mere removal of the 
leader. If the nobles would avail themselves of 
victory they had won, it was incumbent on them to 
get rid of these obstacles. 

They endeavoured to effect this sometimes di- 
rectly, sometimes by a variety of indirect means. 
They brought it about that the president of the 
privy council should no longer make his official 
communications directly to the governess, but only 
hi the sittings of the council of state, a device by 
which a wholly new share in public business was 
necessarily secured to themselves. It is alleged 
that they prevented the introduction of the new 
bishop, where it had not yet taken place; that they 
favoured every refractory disposition towards the 
judicature of the church and of the privy council ; 
that they filled up offices at their own pleasure, 
nay, for money ; and that they deliberately post- 
poned the dignity and consideration of the gover- 
ness to their own *. 

But whatever means they might employ, these 
never fully sufficed to compass their ends. They 
resolved to apply directly to the king. If the decrees 
touching religion were mitigated, and the penal 
orders repealed, there was no ecclesiastical power 
which could cause them either alarm or obstruction. 
They resolved to petition first for the mitigation of 
the decrees in question. The number of the new 
religionists, they argued, was so great that it would 
be impossible to inflict the punishments prescribed 
without exciting a rebellion. Next, they complained 
that the partition of business amongst independent 
councils only impeded its progress. It would be 
well, they said, formally to render the other coun- 
cils subordinate to the council of state +. They 
lost no time in sending count Egmont with these 
petitions to the king. Egmont had frequently 
private audiences with the monarch. Philip treated 
him with peculiar marks of honour, and in the 
answer he gave him he afforded encouragement to 
hope for the fulfilment of both requests £. 

But Philip's government was doubletongued, and 
its motto was " From afar." On the very day the 
instruction was made out for Egmont, the king 
wrote to Margaret that he did not think fit to 
increase the power of the council of state §. After 
this, when some bishops and divines, whose opinions 
were consulted, did not even pronounce in favour 
of a mitigation of the penal ordinances, as it might 
well have been guessed would be the case, Philip 
declared their opinion to be true as truth itself : 
heresy, he said, grew by neglect ; who could think 
of diminishing a punishment whilst the crime for 

* Respecting these purposes and proceedings, see chiefly 
Viglius himself in his Vita, n. 87 : also Hopper, and Cabrera, 
Don Feiipe segundo, lib. vi. c. 17, p. 335. 

t See, above all, Hopper, p ii. ch. 3. n. 126 The last 
point was laid to Egmont's charge as a special crime- 
"Tenor sententiae capitalis in Egmondanum." Schardius, 
Rer. Germ. torn. iv. pp. 83. 85. 

X Instructio earum rerum quas tu princeps Gaurae, etc. 
exponeremeo nomine debes sorori mea? : Extracts in Strada, 
lib. iv. 88. 

§ From the king's letter, April 8, 1565. Strada, ibid. 



which it was ordained was growing *. He granted 
therefore neither the one petition nor the other. The 
privy council pronounced his determination wise 
and holy. The decrees of the council of Trent were 
everywhere proclaimed. The king's new orders 
were sent into all the provinces. The magistrates 
were called upon to aid the inquisitors. 

How fiercely, says Hopper, did the fire now blaze 
up that had hitherto smouldered under the ashes ! 
The higher nobles thought themselves especially 
perilled. Granvella could assail their estates, nay, 
their lives, under cover of the proclamations +. 
Hatred to him mingled intensely in all their 
common views and feelings. 

What then did they do to secure themselves ? 
We find that the nobility of the second class here- 
upon joined in the famous compromise. It is true 
indeed that the most eminent chiefs did not per- 
sonally unite in this league. But their brothers, 
their nearest friends, and the retainers of their 
houses, belonged to it. Can there be any serious 
question that they were themselves privy to it % ■ 
When the country was now thus brought into a state 
of open ferment, when civil war seemed actually 
broken out, when all the elements of strife were 
already in motion, the two petitions before men- 
tioned were once more addressed to the king. Was 
it not to be expected that in a moment of such 
imminent danger he would give way a third time, 
as he had done once and again before ? They 
declared that if he would abolish the inquisition, 
mitigate the stringency of the proclamations, and 
grant them a general amnesty, tranquillity should 
be restored in the country ; if not, he should not 
see them take horse to put down those who were 
in rebellion against him. They had not miscalcu- 
lated; they knew their sovereign well : he now pro- 
mised them actual abolition of the existing inquisi- 
tion, moderation of the proclamations, and am- 
nesty §. 

When he did this, the time was already past 
when the concession could avail. The impatient 
confederated nobles held armed meetings ; the 
iconoclastic storm swept the land from end to end; 
there was open insurrection. The lords had only 
wished, as Tiepolo says, for an alarm of rebellion, 
but not for the thing itself. But it fared with them 
as with a man who leads a canal from a river to 
irrigate his field, but finds the whole force of the 
current desert the main bed, burst through the 
canal, and inundate his whole property. 

The iconoclastic mania split the confederates them- 
selves into two parties; it put weapons into the 
hands of the governess, and the catholic party ; it 
snatched the reins from the hands of those who had 
hitherto been the leaders in these movements. The 
first result was that the king actually acquired the 
complete mastery. He sent an army of Spaniards 

* L'apostille mise en marge de l'Ecrit des Evesques, 
Hopper, n. 64. 

t Hopper, Partic. iii. ch. 1. n. 88. 

X Tiepolo : " Se bene li piu principali cercavano di dis- 
simular, pero avenne che quattro nobili, non pero di molta 
consideratione, ma della lega, si scoprirono per capi a popoli, 
che altro non aspettarono che questo." He alludes undoubt- 
edly to Brederode and counts Nassau, Berghe and Eulen- 
hurg, of whom Hopper says, n. 92, "Tous amis de la ligue 
des diets seigneurs." It strikes me Hopper too comes under 
the category, "et de la ligue d. d. s." 

§ All this from Hopper, particularly n. 113. 

G 2 



84 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



and Italians into the country, and there was none 
to venture on opposing it ; he appointed as gover- 
nor, the general of his army, with almost unlimited 
power; he established a council which far outdid 
any inquisition ; and that all this might he irrevo- 
cable, he had castles built commanding all the 
chief towns. 

Fortunately, however, matters did not take the 
course he expected. When things had arrived at 
the highest pitch, they took a change. The local 
interests once more asserted their force in opposi- 
tion to all encroachments of the supreme authority. 
The triumph of those interests constitutes the revo- 
lution of the Netherlands. Tyranny for once had 
freedom for its result. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OF THE TAXES AND THE FINANCES. 

I. Under Charles V. 

There is on record a curious conversation of 
Charles V. with a peasant of Toledo. The emperor 
fell in with him as he was roaming about the woods 
in pursuit of game, and entered into discourse with 
him. Upon the peasant saying that he had seen 
five kings in his time, Charles, who was unknown 
to the man, asked him which of the five was the 
best, and which the worst. Upon this he had to 
hear what could hardly have been very agreeable 
to him. " The best," replied the peasant, " was 
Don Fernando, who was rightly called the Catholic; 
and the worst — well, I do think the one we have 
got now is bad enough." " Why so ?" said Charles. 
The peasant objected that the king was always 
leaving wife and child, and setting off for Germany, 
for Italy, or for Flanders ; that he carried off with 
him all the wealth he drew from his rents, and the 
treasures he derived from the Indies, enough to 
enable him to conquer the world, and that not con- 
tent even with all that, he ruined the unfortunate 
husbandman with taxes *. 

The feelings expressed by the peasant were in 
fact those of most Castilians, nay, of most subjects 
of Charles throughout his dominions. They found 
fault with him precisely for what he was most 
forced to by the condition of his empire, and by 
his position in the world. Each of his states would 
care only for itself, and not for the whole ; he alone 
had a comprehensive feeling for the whole, by the 
combination of which the wars and the expenses 
complained of had been occasioned. Hence, from 
the very first, Charles found himself under pecu- 
niary embarrassments, which exercised the greatest 
influence on his public life, and on the condition of 
his states. On both accounts it is necessary to 
take into consideration the financial position of this 
monarch. 

It was common to all his states that the royal 
domains in them were greatly reduced in value. 
Isabella had not recovered nearly so much as she 
could have wished from the vast donations of for- 
mer sovereigns; and even what she retrieved was 
again much diminished by Philip I., and Ferdinand 
the Catholic, whose lot it again was to be under 

* Sandoval, Historia del Emperador Carlos V. lib. xxiv. 
p. 369. 



the necessity of courting the favour of the grandees. 
In Naples, too, Ferdinand the Catholic was obliged 
to satisfy the French party, and the exiled Anje- 
vines, out of the royal demesnes. In Milan they 
reckoned nineteen alienations made by the last 
Visconti, sixty by the first Sforza, seventy-four by 
Louis the Moor, all out of the ducal possessions; 
how much could the remainder amount to * ? It is 
asserted with regard to the Netherlands, that the 
old possessions of the dukes and counts were found 
in the time of Charles V. to have been for the most 
part alienated. 

The monarch no doubt had other sources of 
income altogether distinct from the proceeds of 
real estates. There were customs upon foreign and 
domestic commerce, there were tolls, and regalia 
had been enforced. 

In Castile there existed, at least in its main 
features, that system of taxation which continued 
there down to modern times. First of all the 
country was inclosed all round within custom 
lines. These did not comprise Biscay, the Asturias, 
and Gallicia +. Whatever was landed in Biscay 
and Guipuscoa, and in the four mountain towns on 
the sea, Laredo, Santander, Castro, Urdiales, and 
San Vincente, and took the road thence to Castile, 
had to pay the sea tenth in Ordufia, Vittoria, and 
Valmoseda. Goods from the Asturias paid in 
Oviedo ; those from Gallicia, in Sanabria and Villa- 
franca. From these points, extended westward along 
the borders of Portugal, eastward along the fron- 
tiers of Aragon, Navarre, and Valencia, those so 
called dry ports, which separated those kingdoms 
from Castile, after they had been united with it, as 
fully as before. It was only in the south that 
Castile stretched with reference to the tolls as far 
as the sea. No new partitions had been made in 
that quarter, but the almoxarifazgos of the Moors 
had been retained in the ports. In Seville, be- 
sides the general custom-house (almoxarifazgo 
mayor) there was also another exclusively for the 
American trade \. 

The internal trade of the country was no less 
liable to duty than the external. Here the alcatala 
applied. This impost, by virtue of which every 
seller was bound out of every ten maravedis of 
the selling price, to pay one to the king, and 
which extended even to barter, an impost from 
which the law declared that no town or village, no 
royal, ecclesiastical, or manorial place, no knight or 
squire, no judge, or civil functionary was free§, and 
from which there were in fact but few exemptions 
allowed, furnished, after all deductions, very consi- 
derable proceeds, particularly after the tercias. a 
portion of the ecclesiastical tithes conceded to the 
government, had been reckoned in with it. Its 
obstructive, nay, fatal operation, was in some degree 
evaded by the merindades, towns and villages 
combining to make a composition with the govern- 

* Verri, Storia di Milano, ii. 121. 

f Gallicia, at least, not since 1558. Cortes of 1558, Pet. 47. 

% Printed tables of tbe Spanish imports at this period are 
given in Laet, Hispania, Lugd. Bat. 1629, p. 387; Rehfues r 
Spanien, Bd. iv. p. 1246 ; and Les estats, empires et royaumes 
du monde, 1616, p. 322. Llorente, Provincias Vascongadas, 
t. ii. gives lists of the old and new duties arranged alpha- 
betically. 

§ Three laws respecting the Alcavala in the Recopilacion 
of 1545, vol. ii. pp. 617. 623; all three by Ferdinand and 
Isabella, an. 1491. 



THE FINANCES UNDER CHARLES V. 



ment, and raising among them the specific sum 
agreed on, called encabezamiento *. The new enca- 
bezamiento too, which came in force under the ad- 
ministration of Ximenes, instead of a tenth did not 
amount to a twentieth *j\ It was renewed from time 
to time. When the appointed years were elapsed, 
the first and most earnest petition of the cortes was 
sure to be for a continuance of the rate to a further 
term J. But the alcavala was not the only burthen 
on the domestic industry of the land. Special dues 
were levied on Granadan silk at Granada, Murcia at 
Almeria. When the flocks migrated to Estrema- 
dura, the farmers of the royal servicio y montazgo 
sat down in the passes of the country, reckoned 
flock by flock, and demanded the money, or the 
cattle per hundred or per thousand, due to them §. 
Salt was a monopoly. Fines, confiscations, the 
rents of the grand masterships, and smaller con- 
tingencies were added to these regular sources of 
revenue. 

Altogether I find the income in the times of 
Charles V. calculated at 920,000 ducats || ; but if we 
may judge from not much later accounts, it may 
have reached a million. It was founded, as we 
have seen, chiefly on commerce ; over this, above 
all things, the government had acquired a complete 
control. 

It aimed at the same result in the other provinces 
likewise; but it was not successful in all. 

Sicily was the freest of them all from taxes, as 
well as from other interferences on the part of the 
central authority. The custom houses in Messina 
and Palermo could yield but small returns, seeing 
how inconsiderable was the commerce the kingdom 
carried on with foreign countries. Sicily had but 
one important branch of commerce, the corn trade; 
Sicilian wheat continued still to be consumed in 
Valencia and Malta, Genoa and Lucca, and even 
in Venice since the Turks had begun to annoy that 
state. The government kept this trade completely 
under its own control. The proprietors having 
conveyed their superfluity to eight places on the 
sea-coast, where the corn was received by a royal 
storekeeper, and kept till a purchaser was found, 
the viceroy had the power not only of determining 
how much should be allowed to be exported, but 
also at what price. The government received some 
tari on every salma. It was not the easiest part of 
an office encompassed with so many difficulties to 
arrange these matters. It was necessary to have 
a near-guess calculation of the probable proceeds 
of the whole harvest, and it was only when this 
exceeded 800,000 salme, that exportation was 
allowed. Then if a great profit might be realised 
from some advance of price, it was necessary to 
employ the utmost caution in the matter. Instances 
had been known of an advance of four tari the 
salma sending away purchasers to Provence or 

* Estimated in Ulloa, Restablecimiento de las fabricas y 
commercio Espafiol, p. 20. 

t Origen, progresos y estado de las rentas de la corona de 
Espafia, por Don Francisco Gallardo Fernandez; Madrid, 
1805, torn. i. lib. ii. artic. ii. p. 164. 

I Cortes of 1558, Petic. v. " De dar el dicho encabeza- 
miento perpetuamente en le precio en que estava, a lo 
menos prorogacion por otros veynte anos." 

§ Nueva Recopilacion, lib. ix. tit. 27. ley vi. 

|| Marino Cavallo : " De datii et altre entrate ordinarie di 
Spagna 800,000 : dalli gran mastri, che tutti sono nella per- 
sona dell' imperatore, 120,000 ducati." 



85 



Alessandria. The prosperity of the citizens de- 
pended on this trade ; as soon as exportation 
stopped, they could neither clear off their debts 
of the past year, nor make provision for that ensu- 
ing. The tranquillity of the country depended 
upon it ; for a slight dearth was enough among 
these men, naturally so intent on their profits, to 
cause a great rise of price, and consequently mul- 
tiplied evils, nay, dangers. The government itself 
depended on the trade for its best source of in- 
come, and so it may easily be imagined what care 
it exacted with regard to it *. The sovereign was 
here the real merchant ; he fixed one price for the 
buyer and another for the seller ; the difference 
between the two was his profit. But as the buyers 
did not pay more here than elsewhere, it needs 
little penetration to perceive that this arrange- 
ment was a real tax upon the country. This source of 
revenue rendered somewhat about 250,000 ducats, 
and this was nearly all the Sicilians suffered to 
be extracted from them. The remainder of the 
revenue, some time after the reign of Charles, was 
computed at 160,000 ducats. I do not believe 
that the government in his day collected more than 
between three and four hundred thousand ducats. 

The Netherlander ranked next to the Sicilians 
in point of freedom and immunities. In fact they 
submitted to still fewer burthens on their trade, on 
which their existence and their fortunes depended. 
The government did not receive much more than 
200,000 ducats from the Antwerp customs +. But 
another impost, called for by the wants of the state, 
was facilitated by the prosperity of the province, a 
duty, namely, on articles of consumption, particu- 
larly wine and beer. By means of this and other 
dues the regular income of the Netherlands was 
raised even above that of Castile, to the amount of 
1,250,000 ducats. 

If trade was taxed in Sicily, and in the Nether- 
lands a portion of the consumption, we find the 
government in Milan the possessor, in addition to 
these sources of profit, of the monopoly of salt. It 
imported yearly some 330,000 staja of salt, and sold 
it to the inhabitants. We find the regular income 
of the duchy in the time of Charles V. calculated at 
400,000 ducats J. 

No other country perhaps ever suffered more 
from financial measures than Naples. The harsh 
policy of the emperor Frederick II. is well known §. 
Much as the Anjous hated him, they nevertheless 
followed his example in this respect; much as they, 
in their turn, were detested by the Aragonese, they 
were nevertheless imitated by the latter in their 
extortions. Charles V., too, went greater lengths 
here than any where else. Not only were export and 
import, internal trade and consumption taxed, and 
that so rigorously that even the herdsmen driving 
their cattle in winter from the mountains to the 
plains of Apulia, were bound to pay a considerable 
toll to the custom-house of Foggia; but what parti- 
cularly distinguished the Neapolitan administration 
was, that since the collections of the Normans and 
of Frederick IT. a direct tax on hearths had been 

* Ragazzoni in the Avvertimenti di Don Scipio di Castro. 

t Cavallo, and a list appended to the otherwise useless 
Compendio degli stati, etc. Informatt. i. f. 96. MS. 

t From the Sauli contract with Francesco Sforza II. in 
Verri, Storia, ii. p. 190. Likewise Cavallo and Leoni. 

§ On this subject, see Von Raumer, Hohenstaufen, Bd. iii. 
p. 548; Schlossers Weltgeschichte, iii. 21, p. 415. 



8G 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



introduced, which bore with particular severity on 
the poor *. From all these different sources the 
country contributed, in the times of Charles V., 
about a million of ducats. 

All this put together, we find that Charles V. 
derived some four million ducats regular income 
from his European states collectively, — for the 
provinces of the crown of Aragon administered 
their own revenues, and in such a manner that no 
surplus was left. The special object contended for 
by his subjects was, that he should make that sum 
suffice for his expenditure. The towns of Castile 
affirmed, in the year 1520 f, that so enormous a 
sum of maravedis were collected from the regular 
sources of income before mentioned, that they should 
be amply sufficient without new taxes, without, as 
they said, laying new loads on the royal conscience, 
to uphold and enlarge the realms belonging to the 
crown. 

They meant, of course, on condition that the sove- 
reign arranged his measures in accordance with his 
income. They complained of the introduction of 
the Burgundian court establishment ; they calcu- 
lated that Charles, though unmarried, required 
twelve times more for his court than his grand 
parents had expended, including the prince's 12,000 
maravedis daily, and the 150,000 maravedis daily 
for the numerous grown-up daughters J. They 
called for economy. But when we find the same 
author setting down the regular expenditure of 
Castile at 250,000 ducats more than the regular 
income §, it must seem to have been almost impos- 
sible to rectify the balance by economy alone. 
Certain it is the rectification was not effected, 
either in Castile, or in the other provinces ; there 
was not one in which the expenditure did not more 
or less exceed the regular income. 

Hence it came to pass that the mere internal 
administration of every province indispensably re- 
quired pecuniary aid from the estates. Nor was 
there one in which this was not supplied. Castile 
granted every third year a servicio of 300 cuentos 
(the hundred cuentos for each year make 267,300 
ducats) a sum about equivalent to the deficit in the 
revenue. Sicily granted a donative of 75,000 scudi || . 
Naples, though already burthened with a direct im- 
post, was by no means excused from the donative; 
reckoning that it paid in the seventeen years from 
1535 to 1552, 5,185,000 ducats % this donative 
amounted yearly to something more than 300,000 
ducats. Milan contributed about as much. The 
towns paid 25,000 ducats monthly. They gave their 
grant the name of mensiiale. It was the same thing 
as what was called in the Netherlands the Schild- 
zahlen. The latter tax brought in 500,000 ducats. 
The urgent necessities of the state induced the 
Aragonese kingdoms also to afford some aid ; they 

* Lippomano, P>.elatione. Cavallo. 

t Capitulos del reyno, Tordesillas, Oct. 20, 1520, in San- 
doval, i. 316. 

X Remonstrances of the Cortes in Marina's Teoria, ii. 
426. 

§ The several items of the taxes enumerated by Cavallo 
amount together to 1,188,000 ducats; he reckoned the re- 
ceipts at no more than 920,000 ducats, so that there appears 
a deficit of 268,000 ducats. 

|| Raggazzoni, "Angaria antica et ordinaria, di 7500 scudi 
instituita per la spesa della persona del re, et si chiamano 
donativo ordinario." 

IT Parino, Teatro de' Vicere, i. 156. 



agreed to pay 200,000 ducats yearly ; but they 
found means nevertheless to pay little or nothing. 

This tax is important with reference to the con- 
stitution in a twofold point of view. In the first 
place it was the means of keeping up the assemblies 
of the estates in Castile, Sicily, and the Netherlands; 
and even in Naples it kept up an assembly resem- 
bling these, though but remotely. In the second 
place the nobility for the most part excluded them- 
selves from liability to the tax. This was usually 
portioned out among the communes, which were 
required to furnish the sum voted from their in- 
comes, their estates, or from individual contribu- 
tions. It was only in case the vassals of the nobles 
were hard pressed *, that they too were allowed to 
put in a word on the occasion of the grant. 

But all the money thus raised, served after all, 
as is plain in the case of Castile, for little more 
than to meet the domestic wants of the administra- 
tion, and to defray perhaps the expenses of the 
royal household. What remained for the general 
government, and for extraordinary contingencies ? 

The provinces were compelled to furnish extra- 
ordinary supplies. From the time the Castilian 
cortes in the year 1538, just at the period the 
grandees displayed such obstinacy, granted in the 
first instance fifty cuentos, and as much in the next 
sittings t, they continued every year to pay the 
king something over 400,000 ducats. The Sicilians 
too submitted to extraordinary taxation for the 
building of bridges, palaces, and fortresses %. The 
donative of Naples, and the mensuale of Milan 
gradually augmented in amount. The Netherlands 
were the hardest plied. They contributed, though 
not without continual negotiation, one year with 
another, 400,000 ducats, extraordinary taxes §. 

In all the proceedings connected with these 
matters, each of these provinces appeared in its 
own peculiar character. The three Aragonese 
kingdoms kept themselves quite apart, and almost 
without any participation in those burthens. Sicily 
resisted, but granted after all just as much as was 
unavoidably necessary. Milan certainly gave more, 
but it stood out successfully against exaggerated 
demands. It was only in Castile that the king, and 
in Naples the viceroy, effected more perhaps than 
was wholesome for the country. In those provinces 
the habit gradually grew of looking more to the 
wants of the sovereign than to the resources of the 
country. The Netherlander unquestionably occu- 
pied the worthiest position. On every occasion they 
paid the largest sums, but they paid them volunta- 
rily. They were so rich that they were not ruined 
thereby; they enjoyed so well-grounded a freedom, 
that they were not thereby reduced to servitude. 

* Speech of the Condestahle Velasco, of the year 1538, in 
Sandoval, proves this for Castile ,• Castro's Avvertimenti for 
Sicily ; Leoni for Milan. 

t Carta de Carlos I. of the year 1542, in Marina, iii. n. 28. 
It was not quite gratuitously they did this. Charles gave 
them in return a written promise, " que no le esentaria ni 
apartaria ninguna volta ni lugar de su jurisdicion." Cortes 
of 1558, Petic. vi. 

* Ragazzoni: "Donativo straordinario per la spesa delle 
gallere della guardia del regno scudi 50C0 ; per le fabriche 
delle fortezze 16,666, delii ponti 8000, de palazzi 6666," be- 
sides quasi donatives, a duty on flour 100,000, and a duty on 
the trade of Messina 62,000 scudi ; these were of late origin. 

§ Cavallo " Delli paesi bassi per ordinario 500,000 ducati, 
sussidio straordinario 450,000." 



THE FINANCES UNDER CHARLES V. 



^7 



We return to the sovereign. Besides all we have 
enumerated, he had turned to account his close 
connexion with the church. The pope not only 
allowed him now and then imposts on ecclesiastical 
estates, but also afforded him a continual and not 
inconsiderable source of income, through the sale 
of the cruzada bull, which allowed the eating of 
eggs and milk on certain days, and which every 
Castilian was forced to buy whether he chose to 
make use of it or not. But in spite of such various 
resources, the remains of the old demesnes, the 
imposts on commerce, the two subsidies, and, lastly, 
the ecclesiastical aids ; in spite of the difficulty of 
getting all these together (how many assemblies 
was it necessary to hold in order to obtain some 
two and a half million ducats of the extraordinary 
contributions !) Charles was yet far from making 
these means suffice for his expenditure. In extra- 
ordinary cases he was always forced to have re- 
course to extraordinary means. To enable him in 
the year 1526 strenuously to resist the assaults of 
Francis I., who had broken the treaty of Madrid, 
he required the rich dowry of his Portuguese bride. 
Yet what a little way did this reach. His army was 
without pay in the year 1527, and marched off to 
take the pay the emperor was not in a condition to 
give it from his enemy the pope. In the year 1529 
Charles was only enabled to undertake his journey 
to Italy by surrendering to the Portuguese the Cas- 
tilian pretensions to the Moluccas for a consider- 
able sum *. But it was not on every occasion he 
had a dowry to receive, or dubious claims on remote 
regions to dispose of. His wars on the other hand, 
and his journeys, went on unceasingly. Nothing 
was left him but to have recourse to loans. 

But to raise loans was a thing attended in those 
times with two difficulties. One consisted in the 
pledges which it was still the rule to exact, the 
other in the usurious and extravagant interest 
demanded by the creditor. Now, as Charles had 
not much left to pledge in the way of real estates, 
he was forced to hand over to his creditors the 
produce of the taxes in his dominions (the juros, of 
which mention is so often made), and his direct 
sources of income. The right of levying taxes was 
regarded as an estate, the administration of which 
was alienated till payment should be made of the 
sum lent. This operation was the more easily 
effected, as the amount of the taxes was nearly 
defined by the encabezamientos of the communes. 
When he adopted this course he usually got off 
with 7f per cent+. But he had frequently occasion 
to borrow without pledges, and then, notwithstand- 
ing the strictness with which Charles used to abide 
by his engagements, public credit appeared so inse- 
cure, the scarcity of money so great, and the wants 
of the moment so pressing, that he paid not only 
from 10 to 20, but 20 to 30 per cent, interest J. 

Now, these loans had a very depressing effect. 
The first kind forthwith consumed the revenues 
indispensably requisite for the current expenses, 

* Sandoval. Gomara. Soriano. 

+ This was the rate of interest sanctioned by the Cortes, 
1552, Petic. cxi. 

I Cavallo: "E gran cosa, nelle guerre passate hanno 
pigliato da x fino a xx et xxx per cento l'anno, ne mai ha 
voluto l'imperatore mancare alii mercanti della parola sua, 
di modo che se bene ha sentito qualche incommodo ha pero 
conservato talmente il credito che per guerra grande che 
potesse havere li mercanti non mancheriano mai a lui." 



and thus swept away the ground on which the 
whole economy of the state was founded. The 
second kind made new aud extraordinary efforts 
necessary within a brief period. The former swal- 
lowed up the taxes before they had yet come into 
I the treasury, the latter anticipated those of the 
succeeding year. It was plaiu, that if this system 
was not pursued with the greatest moderation it 
would infallibly ruin the whole state. 
; Charles was well aware of this. Often did he 
complain of it loudly and bitterly. " To keep war 
I away from his realms, to withstand the Turks, and 
to meet the wants of the kingdom, he had been 
! forced to expenses not to be covered by the royal 
| rents, nor by the servicios, which were but trifling, 
i nor by what the pope granted out of the ecclesias- 
! tical revenues; but he had been constrained to raise 
large sums by the sale of his hereditary estates, so 
I that these were no longer nearly sufficient for the 
i maintenance of his royal household ; besides this, 
he had taken up so much on interest that the 
i remains of the royal revenues could not possibly 
: defray that interest, much less suffice to pay back 
I the capital *."' 

Now, as his loans were principally contracted on 
account of the wars he was forced to wage, the 
I latter were attended with this serious result, that 
whether them issue was prosperous or not, they 
j necessarily produced a diminution of the royal 
| revenue, a loss in the rents previously enjoyed by 
the crown. No war waged by Charles terminated 
with such" startling and complete success as that 
I of Schmalkalde. Nevertheless it was a question 
weighed by the enemies of the house of Austria, 
how much that war had impaired its circum- 
stances 

We may here fitly institute a comparison 
between the oriental and the western strategy of 
those times. In order to raise an army, Soliman 
j handed over his estates and his revenues to others; 

and so did Charles. Soliman made the transfer to 
j soldiers, who thenceforth fought all their lives 
I beneath his banners, and did him gallant feudal 
service. Charles surrendered his property to mer- 
cantile men, who gave him money instead, but that 
only once, so that he was enabled indeed to raise 
troops, but only for a very short time. The obliga- 
tion of the one class of soldiers was personal, per- 
manent, unconditional ; that of the other was 
always dependent on pay, it had to be renewed 
from month to month, and never afforded the 
monarch full security. 

Charles was constrained by his continual wars 
to employ such pernicious means without remission. 
Cavallo calculates that there were pledged in the 
year 1550, 800,000 ducats of the 920,000 regular 
income of Castile, 700,000 of the 80^,000 Neapolitan 
and Sicilian, the whole 400,000 of Milan, and the 
larger part of that of Flanders. Whereas in the year 
1 567, they calculated at thirty-five millions of ducats 
the sum for which so many properties of Philip II. 
were pledged, by far the greater portion of that 
amount was chargeable to the account of Charles J. 

* Proposicion de las cortes generales de Toledo de 1538, 
Sandoval ii. 355. Carta of 1542, Marina. 

t Relatione della casa d'Austria, MS. 

J Tiepolo speaking of Philip II. " E solecito quant' ogn' 
altro al accrescimento del denaro : et certo ha grandissima 
ragione di farlo, essendo impegnate le entrade sue per 35 
millioni d'oro." 



88 THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



But if we call to mind those loans which were not 
founded on pledges, it must appear obvious that 
the state revenues were hardly sufficient to pay the 
interest on its debts*. Hence the extraordinary 
servicios, destined for extraordinary contingencies, 
were necessarily applied to meet the current ex- 
penses; hence war, and every new enterprise, con- 
tinually required new loans. How rapidly the con- 
sumption of the public wealth proceeded is proved 
by a calculation Philip II. caused to be laid before 
the estates of the Netherlanders. According to 
that document, the remains of the regular income 
derived by Charles from the Netherlands amounted, 
in the year 1551, to 927,960 gulden; but even this 
was so encumbered in the year 1557, that there 
remained little more than a net 18,000 gulden. 

From all this it appears, that though there was 
some exaggeration in the expression attributed to 
Ruy Gomez de Silva, that the reason why the 
emperor abdicated was very simple, namely, that 
he did not know how to manage the affairs of his 
crown any longer; nevertheless there was at bottom 
a certain degree of truth in this. Charles saw his 
means exhausted. It is very possible that this ex- 
haustion may have had some share in bringing 
about his determination. 

Income from America. 

As we ponder over all this, and sympathize with 
the painful feelings which so embarrassing a condi- 
tion must have created in the mind of an active 
monarch, we turn as to a welcome relief to the 
thought of the Indian wealth, the treasures of the 
Incas, and those mines of Potosi and Guanaxuato, 
the deepest, the most extensive, and the richest in 
the world, which were then in the possession of the 
Spaniards and then' sovereign. For a long time 
language seemed at a loss to express the magnitude 
of the revenues that already, in the days of 
Charles V., flowed into the royal treasuries from 
that source. There are authors of the seventeenth 
century, who estimate the sums of money registered 
for importation into Spain between 1519 and 1617, 
at one thousand five hundred and thirty-six million 
pesos ; others make the whole amount received, 
during the first one hundred and three years after 
the discovery of America, two thousand millions of 
pesos f ; so that the quinto due to the king must, 
allowing for all deductions, have certainly averaged 
three millions yearly ; and later authors have found 
this calculation very moderate +. In fact, Don 
Diego Sandoval asserted in the year 1634, that the 
mines of Potosi alone (he was procurator there) 
brought the king in yearly four million pesos in the 
middle of the sixteenth century §. 

How fortunate for Charles had this been so ! 
But how happens it that we find not the least trace 
in his European finance of such ample supplemen- 
tary supplies ? 

* Cavallo : " Di sette millioni di ducati (thus high Cavallo 
estimates the revenne in the total) the several items given 
make up together only six and a half millions. Soriano too, 
in the year 1558, reckons only " 6 millioni e piu " regular ex- 
penditure and income) l'imperatore non avanza, quando 
siano pagate tutte le ohligationi d'assignamento, 500 o 600 
mila ducati l'anno." 

t Ustarez, Teorica y practica de comercio, c. iii. 

t Robertson's History of America, ii. 449. 

§ Quoted by Ulloa, Entretenimientos. 



It is well known that these bold assertions, put 
forward by Spaniards, and taken up on credit by 
the English and the French, received their first 
successful contradiction from a German. Alexander 
von Humboldt was the first who brought to light 
the genuine accounts of Potosi, which, far from 
setting down the quinto at four millions, make it 
fluctuate for twenty years after 1556 between a 
quarter and a half million. Its maximum in that 
interval was 519,944 pesos ; but it often fell much 
below this, sinking even to 216,117 pesos. Are we 
to suppose that the earlier years, since the discovery 
of these mines in 1545, were so vastly superior in 
their returns ? To cut off even this evasion, Alex- 
ander von Humboldt has directed attention to a 
report by Piedro Cieza de Leon, which sets down 
the royal quinto of Potosi at betwen 30,000 and 
40,000 pesos weekly, 120,000 monthly, and at 
3,000,000 within the four years, from 1548 to 1551. 
This account, though, as we see, somewhat fluctu- 
ating, and not in accordance with authentic com- 
putations, nevertheless confutes the extravagant 
statements above mentioned. Proceeding then to 
a closer examination of the gains made by the 
Spaniards, Humboldt comes to the conclusion, 
founded partly on facts, and partly on conjecture, 
that the annual import of the precious metals from 
America amounted, from 1492 to 1500, to some- 
what about 350,000 piastres ; between 1500 and 
1545, to 3,000,000 piastres ; and that after this 
it may have risen between 1545 and 1600 to 
11,000,000 on the average*. 

We should scarcely expect to deserve the thanks 
either of this distinguished and profound writer, 
or of the public, did we content ourselves with a 
mere repetition of his conclusions. On the con- 
trary, may it not be possible to discover yet other 
facts which shall further restrict the range of 
conjecture ? There actually exist documents — some 
of them in our manuscripts — which, if I mistake 
not, throw new light on these matters. 

In the year 1526, thirty-four years after the dis- 
covery of America, and five after the conquest of 
Mexico, Andrea Navagero was residing in Seville. 
He was the friend of that Rannusio avIio collected 
the Travels, and he was expressly commissioned by 
him to collect information for him respecting the 
New World. He learned at Seville, that the royal 
quinto from the American treasures usually amount- 
ed to 100,000 ducats a yearf. In the year of the 
conquest it might possibly have been higher, but 
certainly not much. In the year 1550, five years 
after the discovery of the mines of Potosi, the 
whole revenue from America was estimated at no 
more than 400,000 ducats %. Eight years after- 
wards it was perhaps increased, but not to any 
great extent. Soriano, who composed his Relatione 
in the year 1558, says, they talked indeed of 

* Humboldt, Essai politique sur le royaume de Nouvelle 
Espagne, iv. 174. 183. 259. 

t Lettere di Navagero a M. G. Rannusio. Opera Nava- 
gerii, 315 : " Ci e qui in Seviglia la casa della contrattazione 
delle Indie, dove convengono venire tutte le cose che ven- 
gono da quelle parti ; nel tempo che arrivano le navi si porta 
a detta casa molto oro (till 1525 hardly anything but gold 
was brought from America, Humboldt, iv. 2(30) del quale si 
battono molti doppioni ogn'anno, ed il quinto e del re, che 
suol essere quasi sempre intorno a cento mila ducati." 

I Cavallo, MS. " Dalle Indie, non e cosa certa, ma si 
pone d'aviso, per conto di S. M. 400,000 ducati." 



INCOME FROM AMERICA. 



S9 



millions of pesos, but in reality the king did not 
j receive more than from 400.000 to 500.000 scudi *. 
! It is not till after the year 1567 that Tiepolo defini- 
tively sets down 500,000 scudi for the yearly re- 
turns, and it is not till after the year 1570 that a 
statistical hst by Huygen van Linscoten gives a 
sum of 800.000 ducats". 

These accounts, which are the more worthy of 
credit, because, though independent of each other, 
they furnish a very consistent scale of the Indian 
revenues of Spain, not only confirm Humboldt's 
arguments against Robertson, Raynal, and ah the 
earlier writers, but they show that even the quali- 
fied statements of those authors admit of further 
qualification ; they oblige us, if I am not mistaken, 
to settle the amount of money imported from 
America into Europe, as not much more than half 
j a million about the year 1525, and not more than 
from two to three millions about the year 1550 *f*. 

Let us now see how far these accounts agree 
with the most trustworthy testimonies proceeding j 
specially from America. This inquiry must first be 
directed to Peru, the richest of the new provinces. 

When the first booty arrived in Spain from Peru 
in the year 1533, an immense one, as it was said, 
and surpassing all expectation, the royal quinto, 
according to accurate accounts, did not exceed 
155.300 pesos of gold, and 5400 marks of silver, 
that is to say, not much more than 200.000 scudi ; 
for the peso is equivalent to 13i reals, the scudo to 
12, the ducat to 11, and the mark of silver to 67. 
For ten years from that period the royal officers 
in the provinces gave in no accounts : affairs were 
in too confused a state when Charles Y., in the year 
1543, appointed Don Augustin de Zarate chief 
collector in Peru and Tierra Firma J. How could 
he possibly have fulfilled the duties of his office in 
a province where the viceroy himself, to whom he 
was subordinate, was openly attacked with arms § ? 
Gonzal Pizarro enjoyed all the royal dues. It was 
not till Pedro de la Gasca had won, on the 8th of 
April, 1548, that victory which recovered Peru 
for the emperor, that a thought could be given to 
calculating the revenue. Zarate then found that 
since the conquest there had been delivered to the 
royal officers in all 1,800,000 pesos of gold, and 
600,000 marks of silver . Even if we assume that 
the first booty was not included in this, we find on 
dividing this sum by the fifteen years elapsed since 
the date referred to, that the average of each year 
was not much above 360.000 scudi. But it was far 
from being the case that all this passed into the j 

* Soriano : " D quinto di tutto quello che si cava e del re : I 
ma poiche l'oro e L'argento e portato in Spagna, la decima di 
quelle che va alia zecca s'affina e si stampa in niodo, che j 
vien ad haver il quarto di tutta la summa e non passa in j 
tutto 400,000 — 500.000 scudi, se ben si conta a millioni et a 
million di pesi.'" I leave these round sums in various coins 
as I find them. To reduce them would only tend to produce 
a false impression, as they are only given approximatively. 

t This estimate does not disagree with Humboldt's so 
much as it may appear. His average sum must he equally 
great, as the importation received such an extraordinary 
increase towards the end of the century. 

| Herrera. Robertson, ii note 39. 

§ Zarate, Conquesta del Peru, iii. 23. French Transla- 
tion, p. 100. 

II Gomara, Historia general de las Indias. Anvers. 1554. 
p. 257. He says that Almagro, Castro, Blasco Nunez, 
Pizarro, and Gasca all made use of this treasure. 



hands of the Spanish government. How much of 
the amount was consumed by the viceroys ! The 
war carried on by Gasca cost alone nearly a million 
of scudi. Even the civil administration required 
extraordinary expenditure in that country, where 
every thing was sold at an extravagant price. Out 
of all the royal dues, out of the confiscations and 
fines which were largely inflicted every year, Gasca 
did not bring more than 1,300,000 pesos to Spain. 
This sum, however, was so unusual that Gasca had 
to set out in person to secure its safe transit. In 
this he barely succeeded. 

Reconsidering all this, we find three authorities 
agreeing together. The estimates of Potosi, pub- 
lished by Von Humboldt, prove that the produce of 
the mines there still remained at a much later 
period between 200,000 and 600,000 pesos; and we 
certainly cannot assume that it was greater at first, 
since the increase in it did not take place till the 
m i nes were begun to be worked on a better system 
than that practised by the Indians. Zarate's reckon- 
ings show that the amount of all the royal dues of 
Peru between 1533 and 1548, averaged 360,000 
scudi. It must certainly have been more consider- 
able in later than in earlier years, and may possibly 
have risen to more than 500,000 scudi. But as 
much of it was consumed in Peru itself, and as this 
was no doubt the case likewise with the other 
branches of the American revenue *, we may well 
credit the testimony of the relationi, that little 
more than 400,000 scudi a year reached the king's 
hands. If, indeed, we were to put faith in common 
report the tiring was far otherwise. Even contem- 
poraries tell us how every one of several thousand 
Indians gathered some marks of silver weekly, 
and how a great number of bars of silver had been 
thrown overboard, yet, nevertheless, millions were 
delivered to the king +. But who would put faith 
in rumour, notorious as it is for exaggeration ? 
None knew the amount of the treasure, but he who 
had the control of it ; error began on the outside 
from the very doors. Cieza was in Potosi, yet he 
did not see the accounts, and unquestionably he 
exaggerates greatly when he tells us that three 
millions passed thence into the royal treasury in 
the space of four years. But succeeding writers 
did not stop short even at that statement. Acosta, 
who lived at a period not long after Cieza's day, 
reports a million and half of pesos annually. 
The writers who followed went on swelling the 
error, and in Sandoval's hands the supposed sum 
was already grown to four millions. 

It needed not such vast sums to produce asto- 
nishment in those times. Gomara says, " Within 
sixty years the Spaniards have discovered, con- 
quered, and overrun the country ; the gold and 
silver they have won there is not to be told ; it 
exceeds sixty millions At first scarcely more 
than a quarter of a million, and for a long time 
after scarcely more than half a million can have 
been imported. The amount may possibly have 
been three millions in 1552, the year in* which 
Gomara wrote, 

* According to an authentic computation in Robertson's 
Notes and Illustrations, 101, the yearly expenditure of the 
government amounted in 1614 to more than the half of the 
then incomparably great income. 

t Cieza, Cronica del Peru, c. cix. 

X Gomara, p. 300. 



90 THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



Philip IT. at a later period saw indeed very 
different amounts arrive to him from the Indies. 
But Charles V. had to content himself with those 
we have stated. If that monarch was not reduced 
to absolute bankruptcy, he owed his preservation 
more to the aid he received from the Nether- 
lands, than to that from America. Holland, nei- 
ther the largest nor the most compliant of the 
seventeen provinces of the Low Countries, paid 
almost every year two contributions, each amount- 
ing to between 400,000 and 700,000 carlsgulden. 
The Netherlands often paid nearly five millions of 
gulden, that is, two millions and a half of ducats *. 
What were the 400,000 from America in compa- 
rison with these ? There, says Soriano, in the 
Netherlands, are those treasures, mines, and Indies 
which have rendered the emperor's wars possible, 
which have upheld his realm, his dignity, and his 
creditf. In this we must really agree with him. 

2. The Finances under Philip II. 

Hardly ever did monarch ascend his throne 
under more disadvantageous circumstances than 
Philip II. Whilst his old enemies were reinforced 
by the accession of a new one whose hostility he 
most deprecated, by a pope who deemed himself 
born to annihilate the Spanish power; whilst he 
was threatened with formidable wars simultaneously 
on the Flemish, the Milanese, and the Neapolitan 
frontiers, he found all the resources of the state 
exhausted, the fountains of the regular revenue 
dried up, the land laden with debt, the rate of 
interest crushing, credit tottering %. Might he hope 
to retrieve his desperate circumstances ? Might he 
even hope to rally the energies of his state to a 
vigorous defence ? 

If ever there is an excuse for uncompromising 
measures, it is on the occasion of an accession to a 
throne. To escape from such painful pecuniary 
embarrassments, unquestionably only one of these 
three means is practicable. Either the monarch 
endeavours to augment his solvent powers in a 
decisive degree, as has been done in many a state 
by the sale of public property; or an attempt is 
made to get rid of the claims of creditors, which 
can only be done by a national bankruptcy, or 
declaration of insolvency; or the liquidating me- 
dium, the value of money, must in some way or 
other be changed. 

We observe that king Philip's counsellors pro- 
posed all these means one after the other. 

First, they suggested the sale of the repartimi- 
entos in America. To secure the Indians from the 
cruel oppressions of the Spanish settlers, and at the 
same time to keep the latter in continual depend- 
ence on the crown, the enormous fiefs bestowed on 
them had for the most part been granted only for 
life. Royal commissioners saw to it that they 
exacted only a fixed tribute, only prescribed tasks 
from the natives. What an advantage for the 
Spaniards if their fiefs were declared freehold ! A 
great part of the American gold was in their hands; 
they offered it for such a concession. They had 
already offered eight millions for it to Charles. 

* Wagenaar, ii. 535. 

t " Questi sono li tesori del re di Spagna, queste Je minere, 
queste l'lndie. 

t Ruy Gomez said to Soriano that the king was "senza 
prattica, senza soldati, senza danari." 



Humanity, however, and prudence were alike op- 
posed to the measure ; humanity, for what was to 
be the fate of the Indians, if their masters were 
empowered to regard them as serfs; and prudence, 
for distance and independence combined would have 
tempted too strongly to revolt. The old emperor 
exerted all the influence that remained to him 
after his abdication to prevent the adoption of such 
a measure *. The united interests of the Indians 
and of the crown proved a bar to it. 

Hereupon some counsellors had the courage to 
propose direct bankruptcy to their sovereign. They 
pressed two points upon his consideration ; first, 
that he was not bound to acknowledge his father's 
debts; secondly, that the creditors were abundantly 
paid by the inordinate rate of interest. They would 
have Philip neither pay back the capital nor con- 
tinue to discharge the interest upon it. But mature 
reflection rejected this counsel likewise. What was 
to become of public credit ? Were the debts at all 
personal ? Were they not the debts of the state ? 
And how were the exigencies of the moment to be 
met amidst the confusion which such a resolution 
would be sure to occasion I This scheme too was 
rejected 

To think of adopting the third means must have 
appeared almost wild and visionary in an age when 
paper money was unknown; and, indeed, had it 
been known it could hardly have been applied in 
this case. Soriano's narration to his Signoria bor- 
ders almost on the incredible. For who could 
imagine that he who was owner of the mines of 
Peru, not satisfied with genuine silver, should con- 
ceive the design of fabricating false ? Yet Soriano 
assures us, with all his usual colour of credibility, 
that this not very honourable, closely concealed, 
and most extraordinary device had been entered 
upon since the year 1556. An attempt having been 
persisted in for a while to introduce it into circula- 
tion under the form of coin, it was only a misun- 
derstanding between the contractor and the king's 
confessor, who had a hand in the matter, that put 
a stop to the experiment. We are told, however, 
that a German soon after made his appearance in 
Mechlin, who produced a mock silver, capable of 
enduring the test of the touchstone and the ham- 
mer, but not of the fire. The idea, it is said, was 
seriously entertained of paying the troops in that 
metal ; and it was only given up, though not with- 
out liberally rewarding the inventor, because the 
estates of the kingdom had come to know of the 
project, and had set their faces against it, on the 
ground " that very possibly good and genuine 
money might be thrown away after the spurious." 
Incredible as all this sounds, Soriano, nevertheless, 
avers that this invention was known to some of his 
auditors, the Venetian nobili £. 

* Soriano: "Benche moHi delli principali per il bisogno 
grande ehe si havea de danari per la guerra, lodassero questo 
partito, S. M. Cesarea non ha mai voluto accettarlo, per 
non far torto all' Indiani di sottometterli a tanti tiranni et 
per non rnettersi in pericolo d'una rebellione universale. 
Questa e una delle cose (forse sola) che sia stata regolata 
secondo il parere d'imperatore dappoi che questo re e al 
governo." 

t Cabrera, Don Felipe II. p. 41. 

I Soriano: "Oitre queste vie n'e un' altra straordinaria, 
la quale, perche e poco honorevole, e tenuta secreta. Questa 
e un' industria che e principiata gia 2 armi e piu con titolo 
della zecca, ben conosciuta d'alcuni in questa citia, ma non 



THE FINANCES UNDER PHILIP II. 91 



These measures, so perilous or so visionary, so 
intensely extravagant in their aim, were at last 
abandoned. Philip, making up his mind to endure 
the burthen that lay upon him as his father had 
done, and to entangle himself still more in these 
uneasy circumstances, thought of nothing but how 
he might supply the wants of the moment, and 
effect the measures of defence most immediately 
and urgently demanded. Though he put the re- 
sources of all his dominions in requisition to this 
end, he turned his chief attention to Castile. He 
sent Ruy Gomez de Silva thither with full power 
not only to pledge, but also to sell whatever could 
be pledged or sold, and with injunctions to raise 
money, no matter by what means *. The princess 
Juana was constrained to sell the yearly pension of 
ten cuentos assigned her out of the alcavala; wealthy 
private individuals were compelled to lend on parole 
security; Indian goods were begged of the king of 
Portugal that they might be turned into money in 
Flanders; and lastly, 300,000 ducats were taken up 
at usurious interest, on the security of the fair at 
Villalon. By such means the king certainly obtained 
considerable sums from Castile. But the Nether- 
lands were strained far more severely. In the year 
1558 Philip demanded a loan of twenty-four tons of 
gold from that country, and the money was raised; 
in the same year, he demanded an annual tax for 
nine years of 800,000 gulden, and it was granted him ; 
in the same year, lastly, Holland not only voted on its 
own account smaller sums for the payment of cer- 
tain troops, but besides this it undertook to pay an 
extraordinary tax of 300,000 gulden, a tax which 
the other provinces likewise must unquestionably 
have submitted to (for Holland was always the 
least forward in such cases), and which upon that 
supposition must have amounted to more than a 
million and a half. These states granted the king in 
one year five millions of gulden, about two and a 
half millions of ducats, a sum much beyond the 
amount contributed by Castile, particularly if the 
Indies be excluded from the estimate f . 

By these intense exertions of all the powers of 
his dominions the king was enabled to recruit that 
army which conquered at St. Quentin and Grave- 
lines, and which brought about the exceedingly 
advantageous peace of Chateau Cambresis, after all 
the painful embarrassments of the Spanish realm. 

But after the peace there was nothing more 
pressingly requisite than to do away, if by any 
means possible, with this perplexed and debilitating 
system of finance, which had been left as an heir- 

fu continuata, essendo occorsi certi dispareri fra lui et il 
confessore, per la cui mano passava tutta questa pratica. 
Si trovo poi un Tedesco a Malines, che la mise in opera et 
con un oncia di certo suo polvere et 16 d'argento vivo fa 16 
oncie d'argento, che sta al tocco et al martello, ma non al 
foco. E fu qualche opinione di valersi di quella sorte 
d'argento in pagar l'esercito, ma li stati non hanno voluto 
acconsentir." 

* Micheli, Relatione d'Jnghilterra, f. 79 : " Havendo detto 
Ruigomez commissione amplissima, non solo ad impegnare 
ma a vendere et alienare officii et entrate et di concluder 
ogni sorte de partiti, per metter insieme quella maggior 
somma di danari che potra." They reckoned upon "il 
partito dell' Indie, i danari dell' ultime flotte intertenuti in 
Seviglia, l'imprestito del clero, gli ajuti particolari." See 
also Soriano and Cabrera. 

t Wagenaar, from the Resolutien von Holl. ii. 13. How 
important this seemed to the people of the Netherlands, 
appears from the Reply of William of Orange. 



loom by the emperor. There seemed perhaps some 
reason to hope that the evil might be remedied in 
years of tranquillity with the help of better economy, 
and of due use of the resources offered by such 
numerous, wealthy, and flourishing provinces. It 
must be owned that Philip devoted particular at- 
tention to this branch of his duty. It wore, how- 
ever, very strongly the complexion of his times. 

The fact was, there existed as yet no true science 
of state economy; there lacked even that subsidiary 
knowledge requisite for a comprehensive system of 
finance. Instead of this, individuals came forward 
with schemes worked out by themselves, of which 
they made a mystery, and which they would only 
communicate for a reward. These men, who were 
like the forlorn hope preceding the numerous host 
of fiscal functionaries and their subordinates, were 
for the most part Florentines. Pre-eminent among 
them was a certain Benevento, who had already 
made offers to the Signory of Venice, saying, that 
" he would considerably augment its revenues with- 
out burthening the people or requiring any inno- 
vation of importance; all he asked was 5 per cent, 
on the profits he effected." The emperor Ferdinand 
called this man to his court ; he also appeared at 
that of Philip. To the latter he offered a really 
advantageous suggestion. By his advice Philip 
bought back the right of manufacturing salt in 
Zealand from the proprietors, and thereupon, with- 
out raising the price of the article, or inconveni- 
encing any one, he farmed out the privilege to the 
Genoese house of Negro de Negri. The 200,000 
ducats paid by that house were thought no trifling 
gain *. It is very likely that something of the same 
sort was at the bottom of the changes which we 
find taking place after this in the salt trade in 
Milan and Castile. The duties on beer and wine in 
Holland had shortly before been farmed out in like 
manner with advantage. The characteristic of this 
first essay at a new system of state economy was 
the endeavour to enhance the revenues of the 
sovereign by artificial contrivances applied to some 
single branch or another, usually under condition, 
and with the intention that the burthens of the 
people should not be aggravated. This, however, 
was but seldom possible. We find Philip soon 
obliged to burthen his people with new taxes. 

Proceeding now to examine his financial system 
more in detail, we have to remark in the first place, 
that all the provinces did not leave his hands free 
in this respect. There was absolutely nothing to 
be had from the crown of Aragon before the war 
of 1592. Sicily presented so compact a front to the 
king, that, except an increase of its servicio to some 
200,000 or 250,000 ducats, nothing else was to be 
extorted from it. The Milanese towns were cer- 
tainly far less free. They suffered their mensuale 
to be raised once by cardinal Trent, and another 
time by the duke of Sessa t ; and though we find 

* Soriano: "E novamente comparso nella corte un 
Giovanni Leonardo di Benevento, il quale ha raccordato al 
re una provisione nova sopra il sale che non e d'alcuno 
danno alii popoli. — Questo e quel Benevento che s'offeri gia 
d'accrescer l'entrata di Vostra Serenita." He also appeared 
at the court of Pius V., who however put no faith in his 
devices. Catena, Vita di Pio V. 

•f The list of taxes given by Soriano mentions, "1, il 
mensuale, che e il sussidio imposto a quel stato ; 2, l'aug- 
mento imposto dal cardinale di Trento ; 3, l'augmento 
imposto dal duca di Sessa." 



92 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



them vehemently resisting the attempt of the duke 
of Terranuova to establish a new donative, still it 
appears that their taxes had risen in the year 1584 
to 1,183,000 scudi. But though they contributed 
ever so much, all was consumed by the troops 
quartered upon them. The expenditure was esti- 
mated at the same period at 1,166,696 scudi*. The 
same reasons which caused their immunities to be 
respected, made it necessary at that time to abstain 
from adding to their already excessive burthens. 
And thus the only provinces their king had left, 
capable of at all supplying his existing exigencies, 
were the Netherlands, Naples, and Castile. 

What heavy blows then to the empire were first 
the revolt and afterwards the loss of the Nether- 
lands ! We have seen that in the times of Charles V., 
and in the early years of Philip's reign, they had 
borne the chief part of the public burthens. But 
now this was reversed. In the very beginning of 
the troubles the king was forced to send the gover- 
ness Spanish money. 

Nothing remained to him therefore but Naples 
and Castile. We have seen in what manner the 
revenues of Naples were raised more than five- 
fold; the three taxes paid there, the fiscal, the 
servicio, and the trade duties, rose in the same 
degree. The first of these had advanced from five 
to fifteen carlines, but even this was not thought 
enough. A new increase was made for the defence 
of the frontiers, another for the construction of 
roads, another for the maintenance of a watch in 
the interior of the country, and lastly, a very con- 
siderable one for the quartering of troops: all these 
items amounted to several ducatsf. The natives 
now complained, that "even the old principle of 
law, that no obligation should be of force which 
was counteracted by poverty, was not admitted in 
this case; for even he, whose only property was the 
breath of his body, was forced to contribute eight 
or ten ducats yearly J ;" but their complaints were 
all in vain. In the next place the servicio was 
immoderately raised by the viceroys, who wished to 
gain the credit of improving the royal revenues. We 
find that they generally carried their point, and 
the towns were forced to pay them the several 
sums exacted of them, though they could not do so 
without borrowing. The consequence was that they 
became inordinately involved in debt, and the tolls 
they raised within their limits were no longer 
applicable to their internal administration, or to the 
payment of their tribute, but had to be applied in 
liquidation of the interest on their loans, and hardly 
sufficed for that. Now, in this critical state of 
things, a hand was also laid on their trade. The 
viceroys imposed a duty of a carline on every 
pound of silk, wrought or raw, exported from the 
the kingdom. The effect of this was soon felt by 
the inhabitants of Naples, four-fifths of whom, it 
has been asserted, had hitherto gained their liveli- 
hood by this trade ; there was reason to fear that 
this improvement in the royal income would not 

* Rovelli, Storia di Como, iii. c. ii. Ill, very authentic, 
but not minute in its expositions. 

t Al Mr Landi : " Grani 31 per gli alloggiamenti della 
gente d'armi : grani 7 per la guardia delle torri : grani 9 per 
l'acconciamento delle strade: grani 5 per li barigelli di 
campagna." 

I Lettera: "Coloro che non hanno altro al mondo ch'il 
commune respirare con li animanti, hanno da sodisfare ogn' 
anno otto o dieci ducati." 



long continue to appear an improvement. Oppres- 
sive as these means plainly appeared, yet the 
exigency was so strong and inevitable, that they 
were adopted. Such was the course of things in 
Naples. 

Administration of Castile. 

But our chief attention must be directed to 
Castile. 

The main grievance of the Castilians in past 
times had been, that they were deprived of the 
presence of their sovereign. " That was the reason 
so much money went out of the country ; a dearth 
of gold was already discernible, and silver too was 
becoming scarcer." How often had they solicited 
Charles to return to them, or to remain among 
them. But now Philip was king. He complied 
with their entreaties; he came to Spain, took up 
his residence at Madrid, and declared Castile the 
first of his provinces *. Now, if this change was 
connected in many other ways, as we have seen 
with this monarch's position, still it is also thought 
that he remained in Castile in order to turn its 
wealth to better account than did his father f. 

In fact, his foremost endeavour was to improve 
his income. To this end Ruy Gomez had founded 
for him a council of finance, in which Francisco 
Eraso took a leading part among other distin- 
guished members. To this end the king was sur- 
rounded, as Cabrera says, with those shrewd men 
of arbitrary principles, those adroit schemers, who 
were continually devising new imposts. 

It is to be regretted that Tiepolo feared a more 
laboured exposition of Philip's several measures 
would weary his hearers, and preferred inviting to 
his house those persons who wished for more de- 
tailed information. He had no idea that so long 
after his day people would look for information to his 
report. The consequence is, that we are compelled 
to have recourse to scattered notices. 

Now, on putting together those that present them- 
selves to me, I notice five conspicuous points in the 
general range of Philip's financial administration. 

First, the beginning, which if difficult as regarded 
the monarch, was distressing to the nation in an 
extraordinary degree. How oppressive were those 
measures which Philip introduced or sanctioned 
during his residence in Flanders, each successively 
more grievous than the preceding. Wool, it is 
well known, constituted in those days a main 
branch of the Castilian trade. Under the pretence 
that the merchants were fairly liable to share in 
the cost of maintaining the fleets by which the sea 
was kept clear from corsairs, Philip exacted for the 
export of Spanish wool by native Spaniards one 
ducat the saca, when the wool was destined for 
Flanders, and two ducats when it was to go to 
France or Italy ; whilst foreigners had to pay in 
the former case two ducats, ha the latter four X. 
The cortes opposed this with all their might. They 
stated that they were sufficiently burthened with 

* Representacion al Emperador Carlos, para que no dejasse 
salir de Espafia al principe D. Felipe : Marina, Teoria de las 
cortes, iii. 183. The Cortes of 1558 petition Philip to return 
to his Spanish dominions : " Pues esta entendido, que resi- 
diendo en ellos puede V. M. conquistar y ganar los agenos 
y defender y conservar los suyos." 

+ Tiepolo. 

J La princesa governad. en Valladolid, 30 Abril, 1558. 
Nueva Recopilacion, libros ix. tit. 32, ley i. Pragmatica, i. 



ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE UNDER PHILIP II. 



93 



the alcavala and almoxarifazgos, with the land 
and sea dues of various kinds, and with the ser- 
vicios ; they represented that it was not on the 
merchant the weight of taxation fell, but on the 
sheep breeders, who now received smaller payments 
from the former ; they appealed to laws of the 
realm opposed to these impositions, laws which the 
king was bound to respect *. Philip's answer was, 
that however all this might be, he was constrained 
by necessity. He had the boldness to make a still 
more violent inroad upon custom, law, and equity. 
The conversion of direct into indirect tenure by the 
introduction of middle men is a measure that has 
always been looked on in Castile with abhorrence. 
The cortes complained in the year 1558 that he 
had disposed of hamlets and villages, vassals and 
jurisdictions, and numerous commons, and sepa- 
rated them from the towns to which they had 
previously belonged. They did not fail to re- 
mind him of the charters, the written promises, 
and even the oaths that were contrary to such 
proceedings ; but however urgently they remon- 
strated, however pointedly they set forth the cheer- 
less condition of those who were now fallen under 
the hands of private persons, still they obtained no 
more from the king than promises for the future. 
Meanwhile Philip had already gone much further. 
Cabrera complains that the king had now made 
sale of commendaries, and rights of nobility, of 
places of regidores, alcaldes, and secretaries, all of 
them properly rewards of meiut. We find that he 
gave away commendaries worth 18,000 ducats yearly 
to satisfy his creditors +; and that shortly after- 
wards he solicited permission of the pope to sell 
those estates too on which the clergy had rent- 
charges, saying that he would indemnify the clergy 
out of his juros J. But unquestionably the harshest 
measure of all, and one that was a real violation of 
the rights of private property, was that the king 
laid his grasp on the money brought by merchants 
and travellers from the Indies, giving them instead 
a lien for interest upon his revenues. The loss did 
not fall alone on those from whom the money was 
taken; it was felt of course almost more severely 
by those who should have received payment out of it. 
Numbers became bankrupts, and a general stagna- 
tion of trade ensued. To our amazement we learn 
that this was repeated almost regularly from 1555 
to 1560 §. It was not till 1560 the king gave orders 
it should not again occur. 

This was the beginning of Philip II.'s adminis- 

* Cortes de Valladolid del ano de 1558, Petic. ix. "Lo 
qual es novedad y cosa no acostumbrada y en gran dano y 
perjuyzio de estos reynos y de los subditos y naturales dellos 
y del estado de los cavalleros hijosdalgo dellos y otras per- 
sonas esentas y contra sus libertades." They then mention 
the " impusiciones prohibidas por leyes y pragmaticas, las 
quales de justicia y honestidad deven guardar los Reyes et 
mas V. M. que todos." 

t Cortes of 1558, Petic. vi. Soriano: "L'anno passato 
consegn6 al centurione una commenda in Spagna di 18,000 
scudi d'entrata l'anno a conto de suoi crediti, et questo anno 
ha venduto il secretariate di Napoli per ducati 12,000." 

X Lettera di Mula amb. Venet. Roma alii 28 di Giugno 
1560. MS. 

§ Cortes of 1555, Petic. ex. Cortes of 1558, Petic. xxxiii. 
" Por haversi tornado para las necessidades de V. M. el oro 
y plata que ha venido y viene de las Indias, estan perdidos 
los mercaderes, tratos y tratantes destos reynos, y ha cessado 
la contratacion en ellos, de que se han seguido y siguen 
grandes danos e inconvenientes." 



tration. We have remarked that he certainly 
avoided measures of the utmost extreme of harsh- 
ness ; we see nevertheless how harsh were those 
he actually adopted. It is not necessary to enu- 
merate them all, his increase in the rigour of the 
custom regulations between Castile and Portugal, 
his exaction of heavy subsidies from the clergy, 
besides a multitude of minor innovations ; neither 
indeed is it possible for me to recount them all; we 
shall dwell only on the most important points. 

Another matter of great consideration was the 
arrangements of the year 1566. Philip introduced 
them with expressions of regret, that the duty in- 
cumbent upon him of defending Christendom and 
religion, and of preserving his realms in peace and 
safety, forced him to devise new means of aug- 
menting his revenues. He went on to say, that 
having consulted with his ministers he found the 
object could be effected in the least objectionable 
manner by increasing the export and import duties. 
Accordingly he issued three decrees to that purport 
on the same day, May 29, 1 566. Not content with 
his first ordinances respecting the exportation of 
wool, he now exacted four ducats absolutely for 
every saca of wool destined for France, or for 
another division of the peninsula, whether exported 
by natives or foreigners. But this is a trifle 
compared to the increase of tolls he laid on the 
almoxarifazgo mayor of Seville. Formerly the 
export duty on silk, dried fruit, sugar, wine, and 
oil, had been two and a half per cent. ; he now 
demanded seven and a half. He ventured to go 
further with jewels and pearls, cochineal and 
leather, claiming ten per cent, instead of the pre- 
vious rate of two and a half. But the manner in 
which the almoxarifazgo of India was dealt with 
was the most remarkable of all. The original 
freedom of trade appointed by Ferdinand and 
Isabella, between the mother country and the 
colonies, had been damaged by Charles. It was 
completely shackled by Philip. He ordered that all 
goods shipped for India should pay five per cent, 
in the Spanish ports, and ten in the American, 
but wines were all alike to pay twenty per cent *. 

Was he satisfied with these sources of revenue ? 
There can be no doubt that it was for the Flemish 
war Philip provided them. Therefore it was that 
he spoke of religion, and of public tranquillity 
when he called for them. But they did not suffice 
him for that purpose. True, he had also raised the 
price of salt about this time by a third ; true, he 
obliged the communes to pay a certain price to the 
exchequer for the use of the public lands +, and his 
Castilian revenues increased to the surprise of 
foreigners (the Venetians, who had estimated them 
at a million and a half in the year 1558, found 
them three millions in 1567 +), still his necessities 
were very far from being supplied. Tiepolo asserts, 
that at this period Philip kept back 800,000 scudi 

* Nueva Recopilacion, ix. 32. Pragmatica, iii. ix. tit. 22, 
lei i. ix. tit. 26, lei ii. 

+ Tiepolo: "I popoli si chiamano offesi per il pagamento 
del sale, che e stato accresciuto un terzo di quello che si 
cavasse prima, et per esser stati privi di buoni comunali 
goduti da loro per il passato a discretione, bisognando hora, 
chi ne vuole comprarne dalla camera per pochissimo precio." 

X lb. " Ha causata la residenza di S. M. in quelli regni 
et la diligenza che ha usato, che ha accresciuto tanto l'entrada 
di quelli regni che hora ne cava piu di tre millioni d'oro all' 
anno, et se continuera in esso, la fara maggiore." 



L 



94 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



1 



annually of the money that arrived from India, on 
account of private individuals, paying them five per 
cent, interest for the same *. He reverted to the 
most iniquitous of his former measures. 

The Castilians now found what were the fruits 
of the fulfilment of their supplication that the king 
would remain among them. All the burthens 
occasioned by the general administration of Philip's 
realms, all those rendered necessary by new con- 
tingencies, all the exigencies formerly supplied by 
the Netherlands, and all the expenses created by the 
war against the latter, now fell on their shoulders. 
In return, they had the consolation of being the 
head of his empire, and, as they thought, of all the 
world. Might but the burthen remain endurable ! 

Between the years 1575 and 1578, however, — 
this is the third main point we distinguish — it 
seemed likely to increase beyond bearing. What- 
ever may have been the cause of the king's embar- 
rassments, whether the effects of his extraordinary 
efforts in the war of Cyprus (for that the cost of 
this was very great appears from a computation of 
the Sicilians, who had paid out 1,300,000 ducats, 
chiefly for provisions such as biscuits, wine, and 
cheese, supplied by them to the fleet from May 
1571 to November 1573 +), or the expenses of the 
Flemish wars, or the intolerable burthen of usurious 
interest, or whatever else it may have been; suffice 
it to say, we find him in such urgent want of money 
that he was ready to grasp at every expedient ; 
that he even approached those high-handed mea- 
sures from which he had at first receded. 

In the year 1575 appeared an edict against the 
state creditors, suspending all their assignations 
upon the royal revenues. Next, it was proposed to 
alter the contracts made since 1560 ; it was pro- 
posed not only to lower the interest, but also, if I 
am not mistaken, to deduct from the capital as 
much as should appear to have been overpaid, 
according to the new rule of computation, and to 
give the creditors new securities in that proportion J. 
Now, if we reflect that there was perhaps no im- 
portant commercial place in the south and west of 
Europe where some great house had not this king's 
name in their books for large sums, we may easily 
guess what confusion must have been produced in 
the whole range of money matters by the sudden 
stoppage of the payments in question. In fact, 
there was hardly a house in Rome, Venice, Milan, 
Lyon, Rouen, Antwerp, and Augsburg, that was 
not hard upon the verge of bankruptcy. The 
greatest sufferers were the Genoese, who had placed 
a great part of their wealth in the hands of the 
king of Spain, and who were then consuming their 
own strength in the revolt of the lesser families 

* lb. "E ben vero die ne riceve commodita (da India), 
perche si serve ogn'anno di 800,000 scudi de particolari con 
pagarli cinque per cento." 

t Raggazzoni, Relatione della Sicilia, adds : " Di maniera 
che non havendo supplite l'entrate ordinarie, hanno con- 
venuto quelli ministri vendere a diversi quello che hanno da 
scuodere da qui a un anno et piu con interesse di 14 o 16 per 
cento 1'anno : onde il re in quel regno si trova molt' esausto 
de' danari." 

I Cabrera: "Con facultad de pagar las deudas que por 
razon de los asientos hizieron, al mismo precio che el Rey 
pagaba a ellos." Coligny asserted, in a memorial laid before 
the king of France in 1572, that German houses had been 
driven from their just demands by the terrors of the inqui - 
sition. Thuanus, lib. 51, p. 1062. 



against the greater. The disruption of commercial 
credit began first with them. Yet, after all, this 
was but a stoppage of the payment of interest; 
what was to be the consequence, if capitals too were 
diminished, and if the right proclaimed by the edict 
was acted on, namely, that every house might deal 
with its own debts as the king did with his ? 

We know that the towns, above all in the cortes, 
insisted on the most decisive and severe measures 
on this head*. They called for another additional 
one. This was in those years in which, as we saw 
reason to think, the communero party acquired 
a new share in the conduct of the state. At 
any rate we hear forthwith a repetition of this 
party's old complaints against the grandees. They 
talked of the numerous alcavalas, revenues, and 
vassals acquired by the latter from the kings ; of 
the embarrassment in which they had plunged the 
crown ; of the wills of Isabella and of Charles, which 
it was desirable that Philip should now carry into 
effect. In fact, Philip made preparations to that 
end. He called on all the grandees to produce the 
titles by which they claimed their possessions, and the 
exchequer forthwith assailed the chief among them, 
such as the Velascos, dukes of Frias, and wrested 
from them the sea-tenths they had so long enjoyed. 
Universal alarm seized on the grandees f . 

But it was easier to threaten and to attack one 
by one the proprietors of the land, namely, the 
grandees and the owners of capital, viz. the state 
creditors, than to do them any serious hurt in the 
mass. They held too strong a position for this. 
Perhaps the grandees availed themselves of the 
claims given them by their services to the house 
of Austria, perhaps Philip himself recoiled from 
making so great an innovation ; at any rate he did 
not carry his intention into execution; he contented 
himself with letting the suits take their course as 
far as regarded some vassals who wished to belong 
directly to the crown. 

And now the capitalists also found an escape. 
The king, who saw the Flemish war instantly 
renewed in spite of the perpetual peace, required 
new loans. The Genoese at last laid aside their 
quarrels and sent embassies. When two parties 
have need of each other they readily come to an 
understanding. The king consented to leave the 
capitals ostensibly inviolate ; the commercialists 
acquiesced in a reduction of interest, as Thuanus 
says, from 7g to 4J. If we may venture to surmise 
a slight error here, and read 7|, 4|, the result would 
then come out, that Avhereas, supposing the pur- 
chasing price of an annuity of 1000 ducats to have 
previously been, as in fact it usually was, 14,000 
ducats, it now amounted to 24,000 ducats J. But 
as this arrangement was retrospective for some 
years, as the king now paid no more interest for 
24,000 than previously for 14,000 ducats; as the 
commercialists dealt in the ratio of this reduction 

* The Cortes insisted, as early as the year 1560, on a 
reduction of the rate of interest: " Que luego se trate de 
moderar y limitar los dichos interesses y cambios de manera 
que para adelante cessen; pues los interesses que han levado 
hasta aora han sido tan crescidos que con ellos solos se 
podrian muchos de los que los han levado tener por con- 
tentos y bien pagados de las deudas principales y interessos 
justos." 

t Cabrera, Don Felipe II., ii. 955. 

I See besides Cabrera the circumstantial account by 
Thuanus, also Laet, De principibus Italiae, p. 139. 



ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE UNDER PHILIP II. 



05 



with their own creditors, which were frequently- 
petty houses, it is easy to see, not only what con- 
fusion must have ensued, and how many a house 
must have broken down without any fault of its 
own, but also, that as in this case there was no 
hope of the return of the principal, but only of the 
interest, the affair was a state bankruptcy yielding 
a dividend of a little more than 58 per cent. ; only 
that it did not extend to the whole bulk of the capi- 
tals, and that it wore the form of a voluntary com- 
promise. 

At the same time it does not escape us how very 
inadequate must have been the result even of such 
extreme measures. In fact, the king was again 
obliged to press hardly, above all, on those from 
whom he had least resistance to apprehend. First, 
the clergy. Every thing depended on his gaining 
the pope over, who, though he often resisted, always 
ended with letting himself be talked over. Philip 
had already augmented his income from ecclesias- 
tical property in an extraordinary degree. Not 
only did Pius IV. once grant him the half of the 
proceeds of the ecclesiastical estates *, but he after- 
wards conceded to him permanent dues for the 
galleys he was to keep up against the Turks. After 
long struggling Pius V. allowed him a renewal of 
the escusado (a tithe upon the ecclesiastical estates), 
and of the crusadaj'. This revenue was always 
on the increase; whereas it amounted in 1575 to 
1,200,000 scudi £, it was computed at one million 
and a half by the papal nuncios in 1578. But even 
this did not satisfy Philip. He demanded back 
from convents the vassals assigned them by his 
ancestors, to deal with them far differently from 
their monastic lords. He wished to have the 
escusado, which had hitherto yielded 250,000 
scudi, augmented to 420,000 scudi, the sum to 
which the money for the galleys amounted. How- 
ever great the difficulties attending such a further 
increase, Gregory XIII. was nevertheless induced 
to grant him a new ecclesiastical impost of 170,000 
scudi for three years, as a subsidy for the Flemish 
war §. 

Thus Philip laid hands on all he could, grandees, 
clergy, and state creditors ; was he to be expected 
to spare the commons ? They had done very right 
indeed to direct his attention to other resources; 
but when these proved insufficient they were them- 
selves burthened with new taxes. The king now 
first fixed the alcavala actually at ten in the hun- 
dred ; he also made playing cards, quicksilver, and 
corrosive sublimate articles of the royal reservas ; 
and he proceeded from his first encroachments on 
the estates of the communes to open sale of them||. 
It being the opinion of those days that burthens on 
foreign trade were the least oppressive of all, he 
not only imposed new duties on the importation of 

* Mula in the above mentioned letters. 
+ Catena, Vita di Pio V. p. 184. 
X Lippomano, Relatione di Napoli. 
§ Negotiatione di Monsr Sega, MS. 

|| Cabrera is classical on this head : " Ayudaba al Rey 
muy bien el frudo dela nueva imposition de la alcavala de 
diez por ciento, y lo que procedia de las rentas del estanco o 
reservas reales de los naipes, acogue, soliman salinas:" 
decisive against Gallardo Fernandes, Origin de las rentas de 
Espana, torn. i. which fixes the first imposition of duty on 
playing cards at ' 1 636, poco mas o menos.' " The same 
author too does not sufficiently define the final augmentation 
of the alcavala, p. 165. 



Florentine cloth and Flemish goods, but also on 
the already so much burthened exportation of 
wool ; and he raised the duties at Seville. 

Hereupon the cortes began to complain. They 
petitioned the king in 1576 not to impose new 
taxes, but rather to repeal those already establish- 
ed. In 1579 they complained that their petitions 
were not attended to, but that the distresses of his 
majesty's subjects were daily growing. In 1586 
they admitted that they were bound to do every 
thing x-equisite for the defence of the crown, but, 
on the other hand, it should be left to their judg- 
ment to determine how that might best be effected; 
but now not only were new taxes daily imposed 
contrary to every pledge, although the old ones 
ought much rather to be remitted, but besides this, 
means the most prejudicial to proprietors were 
adopted for collecting them *. The wretchedness 
and misery endured from the new taxes were, they 
said, intolerable. 

Their petitions and their complaints were vain. 
Castile was not yet near that pass to which it was 
destined to be brought by Philip. Had he not 
to prosecute the Flemish war ? to aid the French 
League ? But besides this he had in view the enter- 
prise against England. 

This enterprise marks the fourth chapter in 
Philip's financial administration. Its bearings were 
as important on the internal as on the foreign rela- 
tions of Spain. In the first place it exhausted the 
country through the extraordinary efforts with which 
it was prosecuted. Not only large sums of money, 
but also heavy contributions in kind were raised f. 
Andalusia alone furnished along with many other 
necessaries 120,000 quintals of biscuits ; Seville 
gave with many other things 6000 vessels of wine ; 
Galicia 6000 quintals of salt meat ; every province 
did its very utmost. But the mischievous operation 
of the enterprise was far greater in consequence of 
the new efforts which its total failure and its un- 
fortunate re-action rendered necessary. If the 
king contrived to console himself, the kingdom had 
good reason to be inconsolable. 

In the very next year, 1 589, Philip found himself 
obliged to call for the harshest of all his taxes, the 
millones, a tax similar to the servicio, inasmuch as 
it took its name from its amount being fixed at 
eight million ducats in six years, but which was a 
real excise, inasmuch as it was laid upon the most 
indispensable necessaries, wine, oil, meat, and so 
forth %. The cortes stood out a long while, and it 
was necessary to have recourse even to the impe- 
rial ambassador, count Khevenhiller, in order to 
prevail upon them ; at last they passed the grant §. 
After all it was as though nothing were done. We 
find the king in the year 1590 busied with three 
new extraordinary means. He demanded a dona- 
tive, opened a loan, and sought to anticipate the 
millones. The grandees granted him the donative; 
being but little affected by most of the mischances 
of the community, they were able to raise about 
three millions and a half of ducats. The greater 

* Remonstrances of the Cortes in Marina's Teoria, i. 304 ; 
ii. 394. 

t List of the contributions in kind in the papers, " Dell' 
apparato della guerra quest' anno, 1588," printed in the 
Tesoro politico, i. 67. 

I Gallardo Fernandez, Origin de la Comision de los ser- 
vicios de millones, in Origin, etc. de las rentas, 47. 

§ Khevenhiller, Annales Ferdin. torn. iii. p. 772. 



96 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



part of the loan was probably furnished by foreign 
commercial houses; it reached about 850,000 ducats. 
But the towns, though so very ready with their ser- 
vices, though pledged speedily to furnish the sums 
they could not instantly pay, nevertheless could not 
supply 250,000 ducats of anticipated taxation *. 

It now happened very opportunely that richer 
fleets arrived from America. Contarini estimates 
Philip II.'s American revenues for the year 1593 
at two millions of scudi, which is cei'tainly not too 
high. Potosi alone yielded for fifty years after 
1579 a quinto of more than a million of piastres f. 
The employment of quicksilver in the reduction of 
the ore had been introduced there about the year 
1574 J, and to this improvement the increased pro- 
duce of the mines had undoubtedly been owing. 
The fleet brought home extraordinary wealth in 
the beginning of the 17th century, upwards of ten 
millions of ducats in 1613 and 1615, upwards of 
eleven in 1608, 1612, 1614, and 1616, and actually 
upwards of fourteen in 1620 and 1624 ; of these 
sums above a million and a half was always for the 
king, more usually between two and three millions, 
and once four millions §. The receipts cannot 
have been much less towards the close of the six- 
teenth century ; only such was the king's financial 
economy, nay that of the country itself, that it was 
spent before it arrived. Castile seemed to receive 
this money only to pass it away forthwith. The 
fact seems incredible, yet it rests on the positive 
assertion of a trustworthy man, Gonzales Davila, 
that in the year 1595, which must have furnished 
the collective produce of some three years, thirty- 
five millions of scudi in gold and silver crossed the 
bar of San Lucar, and that of all this wealth not a 
real remained in Castile in the year 1596 ||. 

At the same time the state in which things 
stood, and the sort of system pursued in matters of 
finance, may be inferred from the official docu- 
ments of this year, the fifth that strikes us as pecu- 
liarly important. The king, who had once more 
commissioned his counsellors to inquire into the 
causes of his bad circumstances, began now to com- 
plain, that whereas nothing remained to him from 
his rich and powerful kingdoms and the pope's 
gratuities, and whereas his treasury was clean 
emptied, all this was attributable solely to the 
heavy interest with the payment of which he was 
burthened. He had recourse anew to the measures 
of 1575. He decided that the pledged revenues, 
rights, and possessions, and the assignments made 
to the state creditors, should be withdrawn from 
them, and placed under the royal administration, 
and that more reasonable interest should be paid 
out of their proceeds. Hereupon the old panic was 
renewed in Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Nether- 
lands, and bankruptcies already began. The Flo- 
rentine houses alone lost several millions. There 
was no commercial man in Pisa and Florence who 
was not a loser % Long and vainly did the state 
creditors exert every influence in their power with 
the king's ministers, with the clerical persons who 

* lb. p. 870. 

t Table given by Alex, von Humboldt, iv. 175. 
I Ulloa, Entretenimientos, German translation, ii. 40, 
with Schneider's annotations, 226. 
§ Laet, Hispania, p. 400. 

I| Davila, Vida y hechos del Rey Felipe, iii. p. 35. 
IT Galuzzi, Istoria del Granducato di Toscana, torn. iii. 
p. 285. Lettres du cardinal d'Ossat, n. 82. 



had his ear, and with himself : at last they pro- 
cured a mitigation, but by what means ? Only by 
consenting to grant new loans. They promised a 
loan of eight millions of ducats, but on such terms 
that they were only to pay down 7,200,000 ducats, 
and that within a period of eighteen months, whilst 
they were to receive back the whole eight millions 
within four years out of the extraordinary servicios 
up to the year 1600, out of the Indian revenues of 
the years 1598 and 1599, out of the proceeds of the 
cruzada of 1599 and 1600, and finally a whole 
million from the sale of places, and from " other 
revenues yet to be devised." They had then, on 
the whole, the moderate profit of ten per cent, for 
four years; still it is evident that the main receipts 
of the following years were anticipated and con- 
sumed by this loan *. 

In fact, every year ruined that which succeeded 
it. In the year 1598, the king had to send round 
from door to door in quest of a new donative, which 
Davila calls downright an alms. This author adds, 
that what was lost in reputation on this occasion was 
of more moment than the money scraped together. 

Here we have then the strange spectacle of a 
king exhausting his dominions to the utmost of his 
ability, yet always having his coffers empty; all 
the gold and silver that augmented the existing 
stock in Europe passing into his hands, and never 
remaining a moment his own ; enormous sums 
raised, yet not a real squandered. Next to the 
expenses of his wars, it was chiefly the system of 
finance inherited from his father, which he suffered 
to go on as he found it, and against which he would 
not employ any radical remedy, that ruined him as 
it had ruined Charles. 

Meanwhile Castile went on paying its taxes with 
difficulty. Contarini states that it yielded thirty 
millions of scudi during the four years he resided 
there f . It was with sore murmuring it paid these 
sums. Those who were inscribed in the new enca- 
bezamiento, say the cortes of 1594 (for the millones 
was raised like the servicio, and with it), were in- 
capable of defraying the sums imposed on them. 
It appeared, they said, from the papers delivered 
into his majesty's exchequer, that many persons 
had farmed out their incomes, and that the sums 
they received were not equal to those demanded of 
them. Upwards of two hundred ciudades, villas, 
and localities had not acceded to the encabeza- 
miento; they preferred enduring all the oppressions 
of the collectors. His majesty had indeed remitted 
a million, but it was as impossible to raise the re- 
duced sum as the whole J. 

* The king's decrees, and circumstantial accounts in 
Khevenhiller of the years 1596 and 1598. Thuanus, Historise, 
lib. cxvii. torn. iii. p. 777. 

t Tomaso Contarini, Relatione di Spagna. " Nei 4 anni 
che io sono stato a quella corte, gli fu fatta una impositione 
straordinaria di 6 millioni da pagarsi in 4 anni et un altro 
donativo di 2 millioni in due anni, di modo che in 4 anni 
S. M. ha cavato di quel regno 30 millioni d'oro, la qual 
somma e altro tanto vera quanto pare incredibile : onde per 
queste insopportabili gravezze si sono grandemente afflitti et 
estenuati quelli popoli." He computes the yearly revenues 
of the whole monarchy at 14,560,000 scudi; certainly too 
low. Milan, which yielded about 1,200,000 scudi, is here set 
down at 900,000, and Naples, which gave more than two 
millions and a half, at 1,200,000. It is always exceedingly 
difficult to state general amounts with certainty. 

I Memorial del reyno en principio de las cortes ao 1594. 
Marina, Apendice, 189. 



FINANCES UNDER PHILIP III. 



1 

97 



The answer was, that his majesty's notorious 
necessities did not allow of his attending to these 
remonstrances. In fact, whilst Contarini remarks 
that the taxes paid by the people were extravagant, 
that it had been and would be ruined by them, and 
with the best volition would probably not be much 
longer in a condition to pay them, he is yet 
obliged to confess that it was quite impossible to 
remedy the evil, since even such great imposts 
were not adequate to the necessities of the state *. 

Such was the manner in which Philip II. ad- 
ministered the public wealth in Castile and in the 
rest of his empire. Castile may be compared to a 
lake from which more water was drawn for works 
of various kinds than the sources which fed it 
could replace ; endeavours were made to enrich it 
with a new influx, but before this reached the lake, 
the waters in its own channel were also consumed. 

3. Finances under Philip III. 

Castile exhausted itself of men in order to keep 
the Netherlands Spanish, to bridle Italy and hold 
it in obedience, and to maintain the ascendancy of 
the catholic faith. For the same ends it exhausted 
itself of money : the interest to be paid entailed on 
the current year the expenses of its predecessors ; 
pensions were bestowed to uphold a party ; the 
expenses of war went on continually. There was 
in this case no lavish profusion at home arising out 
of the personal qualities of the sovereign, as was 
the case in France under Henry III. ; the foreign 
relations of the country, in the shape they assumed 
in the course of time, wasted and consumed its 
energies. 

Lerma therefore had almost a more difficult 
problem to solve than Sully. Could he withhold 
the payment of interest ? The old king's example 
showed what fruits were borne by such a measure. 
Or could he suppress the pensions ? They were 
indeed very considerable. For instance, in order 
to gain the duke of Urbino, though a man of no 
great weight, Philip II. had granted him 12,000 
scudi for his table, and pay for four colonels, twenty 
captains, one hundred heavy, and two hundred 
light cavalry, and two companies of infantry f. But 
as the Spaniards had everywhere incurred enmity, 
and called up opponents ; as France was powerful 
enough to rally all these around her, it would have 
been very rash to alienate the friends of the mo- 
narchy by withholding from them the usual gra- 
tuities. In the year 1600, Spain actually main- 
tained in the states of the church not only the 
duke of Urbino, but as many barons as ever it 
could J, Orsini, Cesarini, Gaetani, and besides these 
no few cardinals. Sarpi asserts in 1609, that there 
was not a town in Italy in which Spain had not 
paid retainers §. It kept up a party of its own by 

* "Le gravezze sono cosi esorbitanti che hanno con- 
sumato et tuttavia vanno consumando quei popoli et special- 
mente quei di Spagna, onde in breve tempo non corrispon- 
deranno quella eccessiva somma de danari che al presente 
contribuiscono. In tutto che 1'impositioni siano eccessive, 
di gran lunga non suppliscono alia grandezza del bisogno." 

t Lettre du cardinal Bellay ; Ribier, Memoires et lettres 
d'estat, ii. 760. 

t Delfino, Relatione di Roma, MS. " Quanti piu possono 
non solo valendosi di colonelli dependenti, ma di molti 
altri." 

§ Litterae Sarpii ad Leschassenum. Le Bret. Magaz. 
i. 501. 



the like means in Switzerland, in Germany, and in 
England. One thing, however, Lerma did, which 
was by all means necessary ; he gradually gave 
peace to the empire. But whilst he did this, he 
began to spend in the interior as much as Philip 
II. had done in war ; he introduced habits of pro- 
fusion at home. 

How much was he himself enriched from the 
public wealth ! He was able to spend on the occa- 
sion of the king's marriage 300,000 ducats, and 
400,000 on the betrothal of the infant of Spain 
and madame royale of France ; and according to 
the accounts of his own house, 1,152,283 ducats on 
pious foundations alone. His relations and re- 
tainers lived in the same sumptuous style; Miranda 
collected a great stock of jewels ; Calderon was 
incredibly rich. The salaries of the officers of state 
were soon advanced a third higher than under 
Philip II. But besides this, what sums were re- 
quired for the frequent festivities, the high play, 
the change of abode of the court, the journeys, and 
the gratuities bestowed on the grandees who had 
flocked back to the capital ! The king's marriage 
cost him 950,000 ducats, about as much as the con- 
quest of Naples had cost Ferdinand the Catholic*. 

Thus in spite of peace the embarrassments of 
the empire only grew more distressing ; recourse 
was had to still more extraordinary measures than 
under Philip II. The king issued an edict in 1600, 
stating, that " foremost among the causes of the 
public need he found the manufacture of silver into 
ai'ticles of daily use. How much better were it that 
it should be in circulation ! To put a stop to so 
great an evil he desired to know the quantity that 
existed, both white and gilded. Therefore he com- 
manded a declaration of all silver plate to be made 
within ten days, — he the king." What could have 
been the intention of this ? Was it to despoil private 
persons of their silver plate % Or was it the fact, 
as some asserted, that the pope had lent the king 
the half of that which was in the churches ? The 
clergy were refractory ; the monks preached against 
the measure ; even the king's confessor was against 
it; and so the end of the matter was, that the go- 
vernment had to content itself with the voluntary 
contributions made by some bishops and cathedrals, 
in accordance with the examples set by the bishops 
of Valladolid and Zamora-f-. But the new go- 
vernment had shown what arbitrary measures it 
was capable of ; and speedily it gave further proof 
of this in a still higher degree. 

In the year 1603 two members of the royal council 
of finances and of the council of Castile proposed an 
alteration in the value of the coinage. So intense 
were the embarrassments of the state, that this ex- 
travagant measure was caught at as "a suggestion 
from heaven." The value of copper was raised from 
two to four just as though Castile wei'e a commercial 
state compact and complete within itself. We may 
imagine what profit was reckoned on, when 6,320,440 
ducats worth of copper were coined at this rate. 

* Davila, Hans Khevenhiller in Annal. Ferdin. vi. 3035. 
Relatione della vita, etc. 

+ Edict of Oct. 29, 1600. Relatione della vita, etc. " Se 
bene alcuni s'acquietarono, altri pero nol fecero ne volsero 
obedire a questo comandamento." This Relatione mentions 
a brief, "accioche potesse pigliar l'argento lavorato per ser- 
vitio degl'arcivescovi, vescovi, prelati e cavalieri degl'ordini 
militari," with a condition of restoration within eight years ; 
the provisions of the brief however were not enforced. 

H 



98 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



But neither can there be any difficulty in guessing 
what was the actual result. The traders of half the 
world hastened to transport their copper to Castile, 
where that metal bore so high a price. The Casti- 
lians too were gainers by this exchange; it was 
carried on with extreme rapidity in Cadiz, San 
Lucar, Puerto de Santa Maria, Malaga, San Sebas- 
tian, and Laredo. Silver soon became so scarce that 
a premium of 40 per cent, was paid for it at court, 
and the common people were no longer able to pay 
in silver the two reals which the cruzada bull cost. 
On the other hand it was computed that there were 
128,000,000 ducats worth of copper in Castile. 
What a state of things ! Every year the fleet 
brought in ten, eleven, twelve millions of silver, 
and there was not one silver real in the whole 
country *. 

Now, as such expedients gave temporary relief, 
but inflicted permanent mischief ; as commercial 
duties to the amount of thirty per cent, on foreign 
trade either ruined that trade, or strongly promoted 
smuggling, and consequently diminished rather than 
augmented the state revenues; as the merchants 
too would advance no more loans, what was to be 
done ? It was always necessary to fall back on the 
grants of cortes. That body was not in a condition 
which should have enabled it to make any serious 
resistance or to give a decided refusal. 

When, after the lapse of other grants, the impo- 
sition of the millones was called for in the year 
1600, at the rate of 3,000,000 a year for six years 
from the 1st of Jan. 1601, eight towns indeed for 
a while offered a certain opposition to the measure; 
but they were soon forced into compliance f. But 
could the excise, which ten years before did not 
yield a million and a half, be now forced up to as 
much more 1 It Avas soon found necessary further 
to increase the rate of duty imposed on wine and 
oil. For the suppression of smuggling three orders 
of courts were established, a first in each town, a 
second in each chief place of a district, and a third 
consisting of a junta of the towns that had the right 
of voting ; each of the two inferior courts was sub- 
ject to the permanent inspection of those above it. 
Did these measures attain the end proposed ? Of 
the tax which should have been paid in full on the 
1st of Jan. 1607, a large part had to be remitted 
in 1608 J. 

It might have been expected that experience like 
this would have taught the government to mode- 
rate their demands, and the cortes to be more 
chary with their grants. But no. On the 22nd 
of November, 1608, the cortes again granted 
1,750,000,000, payable within seven years. And 
though they diminished the demands on the excise 
on this occasion by about half a million yearly, 

* For details see Davila, s. a. 1603, and for further ex- 
planations, Cespedes, Primera parte de la historia di Don 
Felipe, iv. p. 583. All the gold and silver left by a Chilian 
bishop who died in Spain were seized, and when the papal 
camera laid claim to the spolium, it was promised copper 
instead. Cagioni che condussero S. Santita a levare la nun - 
tiatura al Monsignor di Sangro, MS. 

t Relatione della vita, etc , the best authority on this 
subject. " Avenga che molti et gravi inconvenienti se pre- 
sentassero, il papa Clemente concede un breve, accioche per 
questo tributo contribuisse tanto il stato ecclesiastico quanto 
il secolare." This throws light on a somewhat obscure pas- 
sage in n. 274 of Card. Ossat's letters. 

t Gallardo Fernandez, Origen, etc. i. 49. 



still they agreed in the same year to raise a loan of 
12,000,000 on the revenues of the communes, in 
order to help to extinguish the king's debts with 
their own *. They continued to pursue the same 
course on subsequent occasions. In the year 1619 
they again granted 18,000,000. Their alacrity in 
voting money cruelly contrasted with the condition 
of the people. The less capable was the people to 
pay, the more ready were the cortes to grant 
supplies. 

But what could they do ? It was no secret how 
matters stood. The council of Castile computed 
with amazement and dismay, in the year 1619, that 
the king had been granted since 1598, in the new 
taxes alone, fifty-three millions and a half, that he 
had drawn another hundred millions from his 
dominions, and that every thing was nevertheless 
mortgaged, all the sea-tenths, all the almoxarifazgos, 
alcavalas, and tercias, and all royalties however 
rigorously extended and increased, and that nothing 
was left but those immediate payments which the 
country was hardly in a condition to make. The 
king too complained with keen grief, that the head 
of his realms, the mother of so many illustrious 
sons, who had gamed renown in peace and war, 
who had conquered new worlds and tamed barba- 
rous nations, that Castile was so deeply fallen f. 
Still they could not break through the old system 
of procedure, or shake off the habits of thinking on 
which it was founded. Even at this moment the 
king resolved on calling for new taxes that could 
but augment the misery he deplored ; even in this 
moment of pinching want the council of Castile did 
not forego the thought of supremacy over the 
world. Whilst it told the king that with the money 
he had received he might have become master of 
the world, it subjoined its belief that all hope of 
that kind was not yet lost, and it owned that it still 
cherished the wish. And in fact the Spanish policy 
strenuously resumed its old warlike tendencies. It 
is not blindness, it is not unconsciousness of their 
situation, that ruins men and states. They do not 
long remain ignorant of the point whither the path 
they are treading is to lead them. But there is an 
impulse within them, favoured by their nature, 
strengthened by habit, which they do not resist, 
and which hurries them forward so long as they 
have a remnant of strength left them. Godlike is 
he who controls himself. The majority see their 
ruin before their eyes, and yet go on to meet it. 



CHAPTER V. 

NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. 

1. Castile. 

We have now made ourselves acquainted with one 
aspect of Castilian affairs ; we have now discussed 
the influence exercised on them by the govern- 
ment. 

But does the public weal of a country depend 
solely on the administration ? In the Spanish empire 
this was but one and the same throughout ; it had 
every where the same views and every where adopt- 
ed analogous measures ; yet were the results very 

* Khevenhiller, Annal. Ferdin. vii. 117. 
t Manifesto of the Ling and the Gran Consejo de Castilla, 
Davila, Felipe III., p. 218. 



NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES.— CASTILE. 



99 



different in the several provinces. A sovereign can 
only promote, he cannot create ; he may impede, 
but never can he singly destroy. 

A peculiar reciprocal re-action between the 
character of the administration and that of the 
nation, is evident in Castile. 

People have sometimes possessed themselves 
with the notion that Castile was very flourishing, 
populous, and industrious in the beginning of the 
sixteenth century. But there is no proof of this. 
In the year 1526, when Peru had not yet begun to 
allure adventurers to America, and when the do- 
minion of the Burgundo- Austrian kings could not 
yet have begun to exercise the disastrous influence 
ascribed to it, the Venetian traveller, Navagero, 
describes the country in a manner quite corre- 
sponding with the state in which we find it at a later 
period. He speaks of Catalonia even as stripped 
of inhabitants, and poor in agriculture ; Aragon 
deserted and little cultivated, except where its 
rivers produced a little more animation ; the old 
water courses, which were indispensable to comfort 
and prosperity, in a state of decay, even about popu- 
lous towns such as Toledo ; in the rest of Castile 
many a long tract of wilderness, in which nothing 
Avas to be met with except now and then a venta 
usually uninhabited, and more like a caravanserai 
than an inn. It was only in Valladolid, Seville, and 
Granada, that some trade flourished *. It is in vain, 
too, that we look into commercial books of the 
middle ages for the names of trading towns in 
Castile. When exportation is spoken of in the 
royal decrees, the only articles mentioned are raw 
materials, corn and silk, hides and wool, iron and 
steel ; but when importation is in question foreign 
manufactures are mentioned +. 

This was not a decay of the nation; it was rather 
its natural condition, and was in keeping with its 
most peculiar institutions. 

It is indeed highly deserving of attention, that 
the distinction so long subsisted which grew up on 
the recovery of the country between the liberators 
and the liberated, between those who descended 
from the mountains with arms in their hands, and 
those who were found by them cultivating the soil. 
This was the distinction between hijosdalgo and 
pecheros. The hijosdalgo owed their rights to arms 
which it was their vocation to bear. " They must 
be treated with favour," said Ferdinand and Isabella, 
"for it is with them we make our conquests J." It 
was the hidalgo's privilege that neither his house, 
nor his horse, nor his mule, nor his arms, should 
be taken from him for debt, much less that he 
should be curtailed in his personal freedom. He 
was exempt from the application of torture §. But 
what, above all, distinguished him was the right of 
not being liable to pay taxes. The pecheros on the 
other hand paid taxes ; trade and agriculture were 
their vocations, as war was that of the hijosdalgo. 
They too undoubtedly had their honour, and the 
king called them good men ; they asserted moreover 
their right of portioning out among themselves the 

* Navagero, Viaggio, 346. 349, 350. 370. 

t Capmany, Memorias sobre la marina, comercio y artes, 
iii. 1. iii. capitulo 2 : "Si la industria y las artes de Espana 
han igualado en alcun tempo a las estrangeras." 

t Don Fernando y Donna Isabella in Toledo, anno 1480. 
Nueva Recopilacion, torn. ii. p. 10. 

§ Don Alonso's law of 1386, confirmed verbatim by | 
Philip II. 1593. Ibid, ley 13, p. 12. 



taxes they had to pay without the interference of 
a hijodalgo *, and they frequently filled most of the 
public posts in the pueblos f. But, in fact, and how 
should it have been otherwise, the hidalgos were 
regarded as the right hand of the nation. The 
offices of state were committed to them; the towns 
took it amiss when any person engaged in trade 
was named corregidor over them J ; the cortes of 
Aragon would not tolerate among them any one 
who had to do with traffic ; in short, public opinion 
declared in favour of the order of hijosdalgo. 
Every one would fain have passed his life like 
them, in high honour, and exempt from wearisome 
toil. Numberless persons made just or spurious 
claims to the privileges of the hidalguia ; so nume- 
rous were the lawsuits on this subject, that Satur- 
day was always set apart for them in every court, 
and frequently was not enough for the business in 
hand §. It naturally followed from all this that a 
general aversion grew up against mechanical em- 
ployments and traffic, trade and industry. And is 
it really so absolutely excellent and laudable a thing 
to devote one's days to occupations, that although 
intrinsically insignificant, yet consume a whole life- 
time for the purpose of gaining gold from others ? — 
Good ! But be sure that all is right and honourable 
in the occupations you prefer to these. Be sure 
that the likings and dislikings you encourage do 
not run into extravagance and absurdity. Above 
all, it is necessary that the balance be so adjusted 
that the welfare of the nation be not perilled. 

A balance seems to have existed still under 
Charles. Undoubtedly he afforded the amplest food 
to the warlike propensities of the nation ; Europe 
opened to its campaigns ; Asia just then in most 
hostile contrast with it; the African coasts often 
filled with its arms; besides this a new world to 
conquer and to people. Now if the people was 
found to be martially disposed, it was also found 
sober and temperate. The sons long obeyed their 
fathers ; the daughters sat long by their mother's 
side, and wrought their marriage outfit. They 
married late ; the men not before the thirtieth, the 
women not before the twenty-fifth year. Luxury 
was still within bounds. Some sought renown in 
arms; others lived on the produce of their lands 
and their cattle; others on the interest of their 
Indian wealth ||. The false tendencies perhaps 
existed, but they were kept in check by the pa- 
triarchal ways of the land. Trade too had received 
an impulse from the recent events; the new con- 
nexion into which Spain entered with the world at 
large under Charles V. had also thrown open a 
wide field of enterprise to the pecheros. The 
attraction of wealth and gain unquestionably ap- 
proaches near in force to that of arms and aristo- 
cratic advantages. The Indian trade flourished 
especially in Seville. " God be thanked," says 
Charles, in the year 1543 ; " it has always grown, 
and still grows daily. So vast is the quantity of 

* The Cortes of 1552, Petic. Ixxxviii. were against this, 
and also a law ; yet it took place. 

t Cortes of 1552, Petic. Ixxxvi. "Como son mas los 
pecheros que los hidalgos, quedan (los hidalgos) excludos de 
officios." They were dissatisfied with this, and required, 
that where there were six hijosdalgo resident, they should 
fill half the offices. 

t Complaints in the Cortes ; Marina, Teoria, ii. 417. 

§ Cortes of 1555, Petic. cxvi. 

|| Cabrera, Don Felipe segundo, i. c. ix. p. 43. 



100 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



goods of all kinds, and the articles of subsistence 
conveyed thither, and imported thence into our 
realms, that the merchants derive a very great profit 
therefrom *." In Granada, the decay of the silk 
culture, which Navagero had prophesied from the 
inquisition, had nevertheless not taken place. In 
the year 1546 the government declared that the 
silk trade had been and still was constantly on the 
increase; that silk stuffs were woven, and wrought, 
and sold, that had previously not been woven, or 
sold, or exported from the country f. Care, too, 
was taken that the Granadan mulberry should not 
be transplanted out of the country, not even into 
Valencia. It can hardly be taken as a proof of the 
decline of the cloth manufacture, to find it remarked 
that too much fine cloth was made %. In short, if 
we cannot just say that extraordinary industry 
prevailed here, still we must own that some trade 
subsisted and flourished. 

But it gradually declined. Two false propensi- 
ties particularly gained ground among the pecheros; 
the one was to pass for nobles, the other to live in the 
cloisters; both of them coinciding in this, that they 
withdrew men from the active pursuits of plebeian 
life, and aimed at the enjoyment of the good things 
of life without exertion. Both were seconded in a 
peculiar manner by the government, though not 
intentionally. 

It was a matter of no slight influence in this 
respect, that the royal rents, which had been trans- 
ferred for the most part to foreign creditors of the 
state, gradually passed into native hands. When 
we consider the great danger that threatened all 
capitalists, especially in 1575 and 1596, we cannot 
wonder that they gladly got rid of their Spanish 
securities. Now, the result of this was, in the 
first place, that the proceeds of the royal revenues 
passed very much from hand to hand. We discover 
with some astonishment from a mercantile ledger § 
of the year 1590, how Antonio de Mendoza, a 
trader in Seville, purchased now from one, now 
from another of his fellow citizens, among other 
property, rents which they drew from the royal 
almoxarifazgo in Seville. He tells the price that 
Donna Juanna received in the year 1555, 14 for 
1, 14,000 ducats capital for 1000 ducats annuity, so 
that, in fact, he lent his money at 7} per ceut 
interest. But a second consequence of still greater 
moment ensued. The Spaniards eagerly caught at 
opportunities of securing themselves fixed annuities 
based upon the royal revenues. It frequently hap- 
pened then that when a dealer, or an artisan, had 
got together an annuity of 500 ducats, for which 
he required to have some 7000 ducats capital, he 
secured it inextinguishably to his son by creating 
a majorat for him. The son now thought himself 
immediately elevated to the rank of nobility. His 
brothers too, as brothers of a majorat, began to be 
ashamed of the low occupations from which their 
little fortune was derived; they all desired to be 
styled Don, and they disdained labour ||. Perhaps the 
sudden success of the Spanish soldiers in Italy, who, 

* Pragmatica, etc. Nueva Recop. ii. 678 

t Nuevo Arancel, etc. Nueva Recop. ii. 702. 

J El Emperador Don Carlos en Bruselas. Ibid. 283. 

§ " Manuel del libro de caxa de mi, Antonio Mendoca, 
commencado en esta ciudad de Sevilla en primero de Setiem- 
bre de 1589 anos, que sea para servicio de Dios y de su ben- 
dita madre, Amen." Madrid 1590. 

|| Navarrete, Conservacion de monarquias, Capmany, 363. 



as pope Paul IV. said, from grooms in the stables, 
became lords of the land, or the still more rapid 
advancement of the Indian adventurers, had some 
influence on producing this state of things. Suffice 
it to say, that the number of those who laid them- 
selves out to enjoy an easy life by means of their 
annuities, the number of those knights, such as 
they are presented to us in Lazarillo de Tormes, 
who lived rather upon their imaginations than upon 
their wealth, increased beyond measure, and we 
may well assert that the proceedings and the pecu- 
liar character of the government seconded the 
national inclination in this respect. 

The same thing was further induced in another 
manner. What strange forms does human ambi- 
tion put on ! Because king Philip founded the 
Escurial with so much pomp that he was called 
the second Solomon, the grandees thought it no less 
becoming them to found convents ; for had they 
not states and vassals, courts and subjects, as well 
as the king * % Their ambition then, and their emu- 
lation, were turned in this direction. They esteemed 
it an advantage to their estates to have convents 
upon them. Every place in the realm saw new 
ones spring up, and in none of them was there any 
lack of monks. What an easy life, free from all 
care, and yet by no means without weight and 
consideration, did the convents offer ! What strong 
temptations to this manner of life were created by 
the grammar schools, which were established in 
the smallest spots, and which filled the abler heads 
with an inclination for the ecclesiastical order at 
least, if not for better things. The families esteemed 
it a sort of wealth to have one of their members in 
the cloisters, and in fact they did thereby acquire 
certain exemptions. Thus the king and his grandees 
founded schools of indolence (Philip III. and his 
consort did so to a still far greater degree than Phi- 
lip II.), and the people were eager to enter them, 
particularly those who could entertain no hopes of 
being ennobled. It was when it reached to this 
extent that the monastic system became truly 
pernicious f. 

Possibly the conclusion might be admitted, that 
the development of both these tendencies arose 
naturally out of the position of the monarchy. Tts 
growth ceased under Philip II. If there had for- 
merly been hot wars in Italy, on the Spanish fron- 
tiers, and on the coasts of Africa, the garrisons in 
those regions now remained quiet, and then." exist- 
ence too was in some sort like the enjoyment of a 
benefice. The Indian discoveries were completed; 
the galleons sailed quietly from the Canaries to 
Vera Cruz, from Acapulco to Manilla; the wars 
with the natives were ended ; peace had long pre- 
vailed throughout the whole empire, with the ex- 
ception of Flanders. Accordingly, when quiet and 
enjoyment were seen throughout the whole range 
of the empire, taking the place of the ceaseless 
commotions and the mighty efforts that had for- 
merly pervaded it, the same result took place like- 
wise hi private life in the interior of Spain. 

Now, if such became the diminished inclination 
of very many Spaniards for the pursuits of industry, 
the government, if I am not mistaken, participated 
in another way in bringing this about, and that 
rather by excess than by deficiency of care. 

* Well explained by Davila, Felipe III. c. 85. 
t Diego de Arellano, Consejo. 



NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES.— CASTILE. 



101 



Striving to aid commerce by a host of laws, re- 
stricting importation at one time, exportation at 
another, they did mischief after all to the object of 
their solicitude. They had passed a law against 
the importation of goods from Barbary ; but as 
the country could not dispense with the hides, the 
Cordovan leather, and the drugs from that region, 
the consequence was, that foreign ships took in 
cargoes of these articles in Barbary, carried them 
to Spain and sold them there at a very high price *. 
In the year 1552 the exportation of all cloth was 
prohibited, whether coarse or fine, both frisas and 
sayales, and also that of all wools, spun and combed : 
the consequence was, that many manufacturers of 
cloth abandoned their business, and shut up their 
premises. It was found necessary, no later than 
1558, to repeal this prohibition, at least in respect 
of the districts along the confines of Portugal f. 
These prohibitions on exportation were what above 
all characterized most peculiarly the commercial 
legislation of Spain. The great object aimed at 
was, to have the goods in question cheap in the 
country. The kings enjoined that no one should 
export corn or cattle great or small from the king- 
dom, on pain of forfeiting all his property ; for the 
same was prejudicial to their service, and entailed 
scarcity upon their subjects and vassals J. The 
exportation of leather had long been forbidden, 
and the cortes further insisted that no special 
licence thereto should be granted, since foot cloth- 
ing was then so dear, and even more so than all 
other articles of dress. They complained, that 
notwithstanding the great number of mules and 
asses raised in the country, the price of those 
animals had become doubled, and they required 
that the prohibition against exporting them should 
be rigidly enforced. Nay, they went so far as 
to propose that the importation of foreign silk 
should be permitted, and the exportation of home 
made prohibited, because the article would then 
be cheap, and the profit would be consider- 
able §. 

In its peculiar anxiety to have goods cheap, the 
government applied itself with particular earnest- 
ness to restrict the trade in raw materials even in 
the interior of the country. There was a law that 
no one should buy corn to sell it again. Another 
forbade the trade in live stock, another made it 
penal to buy up unwrought hides, with the inten- 
tion of selling them again in the unwrought state. 
All these measures appeared to the cortes well 
conceived and advantageous ||. They strongly re- 
commended, that if any one bought up wool to 

* Cortes of 1552, Petic. cxiv. 

t Suspension de la pragmatica sobre el passar paiios en 
Portugal, printed in 1559 on a separate sheet with other sus- 
pensions, mentions the " Carta firmada y sellada que no se 
saquen destos reynos panos ni frisas ni sayales ni xerguas 
ni cosa hilada di lana ni cardada ni peynada ni tenida para 
labrarlos." But it tells likewise the result • " Han dexado 
muchas personas, que hazian los dichos panos, de los 
hazer." 

J Nueva Recop. vi. tit, 18, ley 27. By Henry IV. and 
the emperor Charles. 

§ Cortes of 1560, Petic. xxviii. of 1552, Petic. lxxxii. and 
lxxxiv. " Vuestra Magestad sea servido mandar que libre- 
mente se puedan meter en estos reynos seda en madeja y de 
qualquier manera que sea, para que aya mas abundancia, y 
que la seda destos reynos no saiga fuera dellos, pues con 
esto abaratara y sera grande el provecho." 

|| Cortes of 1558, Peticion xxiv. and elsewhere. 



dispose of it again, it should be allowable for the 
woolworkers in the same locality to appropriate 
the half of the quantity so purchased at first cost. 
They advised that no one should be at liberty to 
purchase woad or madder, except the cloth-makers 
themselves who made use of them, besides a multi- 
tude of other suggestions in the same spirit *. 

Now there can be no doubt that this officious 
guardianship over trade in its pettiest details must 
have crippled the energies of all concerned, and 
that the continual enactment and repeal of im- 
practicable laws must have been anything but 
serviceable to traffic ; and it would often perhaps 
have been desirable that the government had not 
hearkened so much to the cortes. Too frequent 
meddling and attempts at official regulation will 
always be noxious to commercial industry. 

In this instance, at least, the result was, that 
the commerce of the country passed for the most 
pai*t into the hands of foreigners. When those 
Germans and Italians, from whom Charles took up 
loans, came to Spain to take possession of the 
localities assigned them by way of security, they 
were soon found engaging in other branches of 
business. The Fuggers enhanced the value of 
quicksilver in Spain to such a degree that its price 
became tripled f. If I am not mistaken, the con- 
nexion of foreign capitalists with the sovereign 
was productive of this further disadvantage to the 
country, that it helped the former to obtain special 
licenses for exporting all those things which native 
subjects were prohibited by law from exporting. 
Certainly they monopolized the exportation of 
Spanish wool, silk, and iron. Moreover, the great 
desire that was felt to encourage cheapness in 
Spam, was beneficial to them in the way of impor- 
tation. We find that for a while every one who 
took twelve sacas of wool out of the country, was 
put under an obligation to bring into it in return 
two pieces of cloth, and a fardo of linen J. It was 
not long indeed before the disadvantages of this 
system were perceived. Complaints began in the 
year 1560, that silken and woollen cloths, brocades, 
and tapestries, and weapons, wei'e imported from 
abroad. There were materials for all these at 
home, nay, the foreigner manufactured them out of 
Spanish materials, and then set an exorbitant price 
upon them §. Proposals were made for remedying 
this; proposals which were innumerable times re- 
newed, but always in vain. The evil rather in- 
creased continually, from the preference given by 
luxury to foreign productions. People wore English 
short coats, Lombard caps, German shoes, and furs 
from Saona. Though the silk spun by worms fed 
on the black mulberry leaf, which was cultivated 
in Granada and Murcia, was far superior to every 
other kind, the preference was given to Italian and 
Chinese silk. Dutch linen was worn, and even the 
embroidery of collars became an article of luxury, 
which was taken notice of by the council of Castile. 
Plain or figured, and frequently damasked table 

* Cortes of 1560, Petic. xxxiv. ; of 1552, Petic. cxlvii. 
" Ninguna persona compre pastel ni ruvia ni rassucas ni 
los otros materiales necessarios para el obrage de paiios sino 
las mismas personas que la labran." 

t Cortes of 1552, Petic. cxxix. 

J Pragmatica, mentioned by the Cortes of 1555, Petic. 
Ixxxiii. and repealed because it was impossible to carry it 
into effect. 

§ Cortes of 1560, Petic. Ixxxiii. 



102 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



cloths, were imported from Antwerp ; Brussels 
carpets were laid on the floors, and writers sat at 
tables brought from Flanders. If any one was 
curious in dress, he had Florentine brocade ; if he 
chose to pray, he used handsome rosaries of French 
make; and when he slept it was within bed curtains 
wrought abroad *. 

The people of the Netherlands joyfully reckoned 
up how much profit they derived from this traffic ; 
they counted the ships that left their ports with 
such goods for Spain; they calculated the numbers 
who derived their subsistence from this source f. 
Intelligent Spaniards beheld the matter with dissa- 
tisfaction. Above all, they were incensed against 
the French, who exposed for sale in all the shops 
in the streets their trumpery toys, their chains, 
dolls, and knives, and had them hawked about by 
pedlars ; who obtained high prices at first for their 
strings of false stones and coloured glass, as long as 
they had the advantage of novelty, and afterwards 
brought down their prices to such a degree as 
plainly testified the worthlessness of their wares. 
" Were they Indians, that people should bring 
them such gewgaws ? Must they squander upon 
such useless things the gold they had brought with 
toil and danger from India J ?" 

Not only were handicraft trade and traffic, par- 
ticularly in the most indispensable requisites of 
luxury, in the hands of foreigners ; they had also 
become farmers of grand masterships and commen- 
daries, of bishoprics, and of the manorial rights of 
the grandees ; their dealings extended to corn, and 
every necessary of life §. The country was even 
dependent on them as regarded war. " Would you 
know," says Villalobos, " what is required merely 
for artillery ? A fleet must come from Flanders 
with wood and powder, another from Italy with 
metal and workmen, both to cast the guns and to 
make the carriages |J." It was not till after the 
loss of her Italian territories that Spain established 
cannon foundries of her own. 

While matters stood thus, while the Spaniards 
conducted themselves like the proprietors of an 
estate, who leave its management to others, con- 
tenting themselves with drawing a small annuity 
from it, and devoting their attention to other pur- 
suits ; while foreigners got into their hands five- 
sixths of the home trade, and nine-tenths of the 
Indian trade, it came to pass that the government 
engrossed and used up, so to speak, all the dispos- 
able resources of the nation. 

This took place first of all by means of the exor- 
bitant taxes, of which we have already spoken. 
The cortes of 1594 complained on this score 
" How is any one to carry on trade if he must pay 
300 ducats tax on every 1000 ducats of capital ? 
The capital is eaten up hi three years. If any one 
will still be a trader he must raise his prices in 
such a manner as to cover his own private losses 

* Luis Perraza, ap. Capmany. Guicciardini, Descriptio 
Belgii. Arellano's Consejo. 

t Houder, Declamatio panegyrica in laudem Hispanae 
nationis, ap. Capmany. 

I Peticion xvii. de las Cortes de 1593. Capmany. 

§ Cortes of 1552, Petic. cxxv. " Estrangeros arriendan y 
tratan en todo genere de mantenimientos y hasta el salvado 
ha havido estrangero tratante in ello, y buscan generos y 
maneras nuevas de tratos." 

|| Villalobos, Problemas naturales, 1534, ap. Capmany. 

IT Memorial de las Cortes de 1594; Marina, Apendice. 



at the expense of the public ; he must ruin himself 
and his customers. But few are inclined to this. 
People prefer retiring with what they may have, 
in order to live upon it, as long as the times will 
let them, though in the narrowest way. However 
low the contract may be, no contractor can hold 
out ; either he throws up all he has got and flies 
the country, or he takes up his permanent abode in 
prison. Where formerly 30,000 arrobas of wool 
had been wrought, hardly 6000 are used now. In 
consequence of this, and of the duty on wool, the 
number of flocks is also on the decrease. Thus 
agriculture and grazing, manufactures and com- 
merce, are prostrate ; already there is not a place 
in the kingdom where there is not a dearth of 
inhabitants. Many houses are seen shut up and 
uninhabited. The realm is going to ruin." 

Secondly, the result was brought about through 
the arbitrary conduct of the civil functionaries. 
Contarini asserts that Philip II. was served in the 
most dishonest manner ; that no one felt afraid of 
the consequences, since Philip, at all events, did not 
punish such offences capitally, and if he were to do 
so he would not find a soul to undertake the ma- 
nagement of his revenues *. The cortes complained 
that the costs of collection sometimes equalled the 
whole amount of the taxes. The despotism that 
began from above grew but sterner and harsher 
through all its subordinate degrees. How was the 
poor peasant tormented with a tariff prescribed 
him, appointing how he should sell the corn he 
reaped, with executions often inflicted upon him 
for his unavoidable debts, whilst his corn lay yet 
on the threshing-floor, and frequently was he taken 
away from his labours, and cast into prison f. Here 
it was that the mischief arising from the sale of 
offices most strongly displayed itself. Philip III. 
boasted, indeed, that in his auspicious days justice 
flourished as vigorously as ever it had done J ; but 
Khevenhiller assures us it was really become venal, 
and that every litigant was thrown entirely on the 
power of his gold §. And how should it have been 
otherwise, since the worst examples were beheld 
at court in the persons of Franchezza and Calde- 
rone, and the municipal appointments, even to the 
four and twenty, and the regidores, were disposed 
of by sale || ? New places were sometimes created 
for the purpose of selling them. Instead of young 
persons, such as used formerly to be commissioned 
by the courts, and who sought to commend them- 
selves by the legality of their conduct, it became 
the practice, after the year 1613, to send out a 
hundred receptores appointed for money, men who 
had no prospect of promotion, nor any other ambi- 
tion than to realize the interest upon their purchase 

* Contarini : " Tutte queste entrate sono maneggiate da 
persone macchiate d'infedelta et eke hanno mira piu all' 
interesse proprio che al beneficio comune, et se S. M. volesse 
venire al eastigo universale di tutti, non troveria poi chi 
volesse prenderne l'assunto sopra di se, et se alcuna volta ne 
castiga qualch' uno, la pene non si estende mai alia vita, ma 
si ferma nel bando et confiscatione de beni." 

t Consejo. 

I Proposicion que S. M. hizo 1611, ap. Marina. 
§ Report, vi. 3035. 

|| Relatione della vita. " I ministri sono cosi interessati 
et ingordi che non se ne ha mai espeditione se non se li 
ongono molto bene le mani : et questo e caso di molta im- 
portanza, perche chi compra, vende ; et di qui nascono molti 
inconvenienti contra il servicio di dio et del regno." 



NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES.— CASTILE. 



103 



money, and who proved a sore burthen to the 
people from their continual litigation and their 
exorbitant fees *. This evil pervaded the whole 
state. 

Lastly, the mischief in question was fostered by 
the court establishment of Philip III. which ga- 
thered all the grandees and nobles to Madrid. 
These magnates had consumed their wealth in the 
rural districts during the last reign ; they had 
however thereby, at least, kept alive a certain 
activity in the local trade attached to the vicinity 
of their petty courts. But now nothing remained 
to the provinces but to send their incomes to 
Madrid, where they were squandered in luxury 
that did not profit the country. It was not long 
before this was felt by the chief places in every 
province f. 

In this way did the court gradually absorb all 
the resources of the country, partly through the 
natural action of its own composition, partly through 
the rapacious functionaries it sent out, and partly 
by the taxes it extorted. As the court drew its 
necessaries from abroad, as its wars were pro- 
secuted abroad, and as its chief creditors were 
foreigners, its exactions never returned to the 
country, but this was every year more and more 
exhausted. We cannot conceive how it could have 
continued to subsist without the Indian supplies. 

The state of things was notorious under Philip III. 
Spain was seen filled with ecclesiastics. They 
counted 988 nunneries, all well occupied ; Davila 
reckons up 32,000 monks among the Dominicans 
and Franciscans alone, and he computes the number 
of the clergy, only in the two bishoprics of Pam- 
plona and Calahorra, at 20,000 %. Every one saw 
the evil; people complained that if this went on so, 
the clergy would get possession of the whole king- 
dom by donation and purchase § ; no one could 
devise a remedy. Most of the other Spaniards 
lived idly; some under the name of gentlemen, 
others in the rags of beggary. Madrid above all 
was filled with beggars, but Valladolid, Seville, and 
Granada, had also their shai'e. Vassals were seen 
starting off, as the expression was, with house and 
family, and betaking themselves to the beggar's 
profession. Every kind of labour devolved on 
foreigners. In the year 1610 there were counted in 
the territories of the Castilian crown alone 1 0,000 
Genoese, and altogether 160,000 foreigners, who en- 
grossed all traffic, as well as the petty employments 
which were disdained by the Spaniards. " These 
men," says Moncada, in the year 1619, "have com- 
pletely excluded the Spaniards from the pursuits 
of industry, since their productions are more suited 
to the taste of purchasers, or are cheaper than 
those of the native workmen. We cannot dress 
without them, for we have neither linen nor cloth ; 

* Consejo, quoted by Davila, and Davila himself on the 
year 1619. 

t Remark in the same Consejo : also Davila as to the 
year 1601, p. 81. 

I Davila, Felipe TIT. in detail, c. 85. 

§ Remonstrances of the Cortes in Cespedes, Felipe IV. 
583. These complaints are very old. The evil had already 
been denounced by the Cortes of 1552. " Por experiencia se 
vee que las haziendas estan todas en poder de yglesias, 
colegios, monasterios y hospitales." They made proposals 
for obviating this : but they were put off with the sorry 
answer, " No conviene que sobre esto se haga novedad." 
Petic. lv. 



we cannot write without them, for we have no 
paper but what they furnish us with." " They 
gain," he adds, " twenty-five millions yearly *." 

Whilst the Castilians were sending out colonies 
not only to the Indies, but also to Sicily, Milan, 
and Naples, for war and dominion, they were thus 
receiving colonists into the bosom of their own 
country, Avho absorbed all its trade and its wealth. 
But Castile was brought to ruin by both classes ; 
the former it lost, and the latter did not become 
incorporated with it ; their home was elsewhere. 

The decrease in the population was remark- 
able. It was asserted in England, in the year 
1688, that the total number of men in all Spain 
amounted by an accurate census to 1,125,390, and 
no moref. To judge from other enumerations, in 
which the men from fifteen to sixty years of age 
were included, constituting somewhat above a fifth 
of the entire population, the above number would 
lead us to infer a gross population of 6,000,000. 
But there was a visible decrease under Philip III. 
Medina del Campo and its vicinity had previously 
5000 inhabitants; they had 600 in the year 1607 J. 
Davila informs us that a census of the peasants in 
the bishopric of Salamanca was taken in 1 600, and 
there were found to be 8384 of them, with 1 1,745 
yokes of oxen; but that when they were numbered 
again in the year 1619, there were found no more 
than 4135 peasants, with 4822 yokes of oxen, so 
that a full half of this peasantry had perished §. 
It was almost every where alike. Individuals com- 
plained that a man might travel through fertile 
fields, and see them overrun with thorns and 
nettles, because there was no one to cultivate them. 
The council of Castile bewailed the matter ; " the 
houses," it says, " are falling, and no one repairs 
them ; the inhabitants flee away, the villages are 
deserted, the fields run wild, the churches empty." 
The cortes now dreaded the total ruin of the 
country. " If this goes on so, there will soon be 
no neighbours for the villages, no peasants for the 
fields, no pilots for the seas. There will be no 
more marriages. It cannot hold out another 
century ||." 

And what did the government do in this state of 
things ? Philip IV. asked advice of every body. 
Many thought the Italian monti di pieta desirable, 
many were for new monetary arrangements, others 
suggested different expedients, and many a decree 
was issued. But did the court meanwhile restrict 
its own expenditure ? Did it abandon its schemes ? 
Even at this moment, in the beginning of the 
thirty years' war, the policy of Olivarez, and the 
wars Philip engaged in in Italy, Germany, and the 
Netherlands, made the Spanish monarchy more 
dreaded and more intrinsically weak than ever. 
" Upon this," says Cespedes, " the cortes bethought 
them not merely of human, but of grander and 
divine measures." And what were these ? Mark 
the naif simplicity of the catholic faith as held by 
the Spaniards. They nominated " the glorious and 

* Damian de Olivarez, Sancho di Moncada, Restauracion 
politica de Espana, ap. Capmany. 

t Pepys, secretary of the admiralty, quoted by Anderson, 
History of Commerce, iv. 235. It appears from the Lettres 
du cardinal d'Ossat, n. lxx., what hopes Philip's enemies 
built on the scarcity of men in Spain. 

J Capmany, Memorias, iii. c. iii. 357. 

§ Davila from the registers, in detail, s. a. 1619. 

|| Cortes primeras de Felipe IV., Cespedes, p. 105. 



104 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



illustrious virgin, St. Teresa de Jesus, patroness of 
their realms, for the sake of the special favours 
they hope to obtain from God through such inter- 
cession." This, however, was not unanimously 
approved of. Some feared " that perchance they 
might provoke their hitherto most glorious patron 
in heaven, St. Iago, under whose protection they 
had seen the world at their feet, and the land filled 
with knowledge and virtue, and that they might 
give him occasion to forget them *." 

2. Catalonia. 

Each of three main territories of the Aragonese 
crown had its own peculiar and distinctive advan- 
tage. Aragon proper had its constitution; Valencia 
had an agriculture that made its fields like a garden, 
surpassing those of all the rest of Europe ; Cata- 
lonia possessed such busy maritime activity, that a 
town like Barcelona, which had neither a harbour 
nor a very secure anchorage, could give maritime 
law to all nations. These advantages had all of 
them their origin in the wars carried on of yore 
against the Moors. In those days the request was 
often made to an Aragonese king, by his soldiers, 
" that he would permit them, in defiance of the 
enemy, to build a town under their very eyes;" 
but, at the same time, to keep them in good cheer 
he had to confer on them privileges almost equiva- 
lent to entire freedom. The lands of Valencia were 
still cultivated in the beginning of the seventeenth 
century by 22,000 Moorish families. All the navi- 
gation of the Catalonians had its birth from the 
wars once waged by the counts of Ampurias against 
the Saracen sea-robbers, and they won warlike 
renown and wealth from the infidels. It is with 
some right therefore that this crown bears on its 
coat of arms the singular emblem of four severed 
Moors' heads. Their prosperity struck root in a 
soil fattened with blood. 

We pass over the manner of its growth. In the 
times of which we are treating Aragon lost its 
immunities, Valencia its cultivators. With all the 
pains these kingdoms took to keep aloof from 
Castile, still, as members of the empire, they could 
not escape participating in the fortunes of the 
empire at large. Catalonia too lost her navigation 
at the same period. 

Once there was a time when the fame of the 
Catalonian navy, to use the language of Don Pedro 
of Portugal, resounded in all lands, and was echoed 
in all histories f ; a time in which the Catalonian 
naval ordinances spoke of all contingencies that 
could befal a ship, but never of retreat, capitula- 
tion, or surrender; in which five of their ships 
were always bound to give battle to seven of the 
enemy, and their generals to die at the foot of the 
royal oriflamme %, What a spectacle it was, when 
the fleet was ready for sea, the king and the people 
assembled on the strand, the three consecrated 
banners, the king's, the admiral's, and St. George's, 
were set up, the air rang with joyous acclamations, 
and all made sure beforehand of victory and spoil ? 
That time was gone by §. 

* Transactions of the cortes, Cespedes, 290. 584. 

t Extract from his letters, Capmany, Memorias, t. ii. 
Apendice de algunas notas, p. 19. 

% Ordinaciones sobre lo feyt de la mar, per lo molt noble 
Bernat de Cabrera, Capmany, Mem. iii. c. i. p. 54. 

§ Capmany, from the Ordinanzas Navales. Ibid. p. 57. 



| But even in the beginning of the seventeenth 
century the trade of Barcelona was in tolerable 
vigour. It does not appear to have suffered greatly 
from the change effected in commerce generally, 
and in that with India in particular, by the disco- 
veries of the Portuguese. We still find, year after 
year, Catalan caravels and baloneres proceeding 
from Alexandria to Barcelona ; we still find the 
city and the general deputation of the country 
busying themselves in the year 1552 to obtain the 
pope's absolution for all those whose business lay 
in the Egyptian countries *, a thing, as they ex- 
pressed themselves, which concerned the interests 
of many citizens. Lastly, we find the Catalan mer- 
chants assembling in the mart in Cairo as late as 
the year 1525, and electing a council +. Till about 
this same time we trace the trade of the Barcelo- 
nese with Rhodes, with Ragusa, and with the 
coasts of Africa, which were re-opened by the 
conquests of the Castilians. We meet with Catalan 
consuls in Constantinople at least down to the latter 
part of the fifteenth century, and in 1499 their 
predatory vessels joined the Venetian fleet in the 
harbour of Modon, to make a combined resistance to 
the Ottomans. Catalonia boasts that even Charles V. 
said it was of more moment to him to be count of 
Barcelona, than to be Roman emperor J. 

But, from this time forth, we see this life and 
activity dwindle away. The last fleet furnished by 
the remains of the Catalan naval power, was 
equipped by Charles V. in the year 1529 ; in the 
year 1535 we find the last consul in Tunis, and in 
1539 the last in Alexandria. Very soon all thoughts 
of Constantinople, and the remote places on the 
Mediterranean, were given up. If the consul at 
Bruges was ever of any importance this ceased 
now. The old love for the sea could not be alto- 
gether suppressed, but it was kept within narrow 
limits, and had little sway. The general deputation 
was obliged to impose a tax towards the end of 
the century in order to equip four galleys against 
the corsairs. 

Now if, as we have seen, the general revolution 
in commerce, though it had perhaps conduced to 
this result in a certain way, had yet not done so 
directly or decisively, the question is, by what 
other causes was this change brought about ? 

Of all the causes alleged two only appear to me 
to have been actually influential in the matter. 
The first of these was the union of the country with 
Castile, the consequence of which was, that the 
whole Atlantic commerce, carried on by the penin- 
sula in general, with Flanders and the north-east, 
devolved on the provinces which lay nearer, espe- 
cially Biscay ; and this necessarily put an end to 
the peculiar system of sea plunder carried on by 
the Catalonians, now that they were bound up with 
the interests of a great monarchy. Capmany boasts § 
that his countrymen highly distinguished themselves 
in the battle of Lepanto ; that Pedro Roig carried 
home with him the Turkish admiral's flag for a 
trophy, as was well known to his native town San 
Felio de Gruxoles, where that trophy was depo- 

* Representacion hecha por la ciudad de Barcellona, 
Capmany, t. ii. Coll. Diplom. p. 344. 

t Carta al Baxa de Egypto. Ibid. 346. 

I Scattered notices in Capmany's Memorias, e. g. i. c. x. 
167 ; i. c. ii. 67. 69, and elsewhere. 

§ Memorias, i. c. i. 182. Pedro Roig y Jalpi in the Re- 
sumen historical de Gerona, in Capmany's work. 



NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES.— SICILY. 105 



sited. The union however was very far from com- 
plete, and by no means secured the Catalans equal 
privileges with the Castilians. In many Castilian 
ports they would not allow the subjects of the 
Aragonese crown to be fully the king's vassals, on 
account of the great immunities they enjoyed *. 
They were excluded too from all American enter- 
prises, though their natural activity might have 
been of the greatest service in this depart- 
ment. 

Add to this the many unfavorable influences 
proceeding directly from Castile. The king, for 
instance, prohibited the exportation of iron, and 
yet the viceroy granted licenses for that purpose; 
but only for money, only to his friends and ser- 
vants, whereby the advantages gained by indivi- 
duals was an injury to the community. Again, the 
experiments upon the circulation, which distin- 
guished the reign of Philip III., must have in- 
stantly produced their unhappy effects upon the 
market of Barcelona. The Genoese too, old rivals 
of the Catalans, were now in the interests of the 
monarchy, and were highly favoured. Taking all 
these things into account, we must own that the 
union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, the 
foundation of the Spanish monarchy, was more 
prejudicial than advantageous to Catalonia. 

But that which most especially decided the 
downfall of the Catalan trade was the supremacy 
of the Turkish marine in the Mediterranean. That 
supremacy was established by the advantages gained 
by Barbarossa and his Turks over the Spanish and 
Venetian fleets in the Ionian waters in 1538 ; by 
the league between Francis I. and Soliman, which 
carried the Turkish corsairs into the most remote 
bays of the Mediterranean, and, lastly, by the strong 
position taken up by the Barbary powers on the 
African coasts. Thenceforth not a single ship of 
Catalonia, engaged as it was in constant war with 
the Turks, could pursue its traffic in the eastern 
parts of the Mediterranean. Shipments strikingly 
decreased from the year 1537. In fact, the care of 
defending their own coasts was become a matter 
demanding the whole attention of the Catalans. 
The Turks showed themselves, in 1527, in the 
roads of Barcelona ; but, after 1538, they appeared 
more frequently, often to the number of twenty 
vessels, and in many instances one hundred. Castles 
were now built on the headlands, and on the mouths 
of the Ebro and the Llobregat, and the towns sent 
news to each other whenever they saw Turkish 
cruisers in the offing f. They had cause indeed 
for fear. Ciudadella, in Minorca, was captured and 
burned in the year 1558. 

Thus thwarted by the great monarchy, and 
driven back on itself by the Turks, excluded from 
the west by the former, and from the east by the 
latter, Catalonia had to content itself with its 
Sicilian and Neapolitan trade. From time to time 
it made but fruitless attempts to revive the rest of 
its commerce. 

The naval power of the Catalonians had been 
founded upon victories of Arabian Mahometans ; 
its decline was brought about by the triumphs of 
other Mahometans, the Ottoman Turks. 

* This was complained of in Castile by the cortes of 1552, 
Petic. lxfcx. "Los alcaldes de sacas proceden contra los 
que compran mercaderias de Aragoneses y Valencianos." 

t Capmany, i. c. ii. 239; Hi. 250; iv. 327 ; iii. c. ii. 226. 



3. Sicily, Milan, Naples. 

We have seen that the constitution of Sicily was 
distinguished for a dexterous parrying of all extrane- 
ous influence, and the duchy of Milan for a certain 
independence of its municipal administrations; that 
in Naples, on the other hand, the foreign govern- 
ment had taken firm footing, and if it maintained 
the rights of feudality, it did so only in as far as 
these operated from above downwards, not con- 
versely. Now the question is, how far did the 
general circumstances of these countries corre- 
spond with their constitution. 

Sicily. 

In the year 1530 they counted in Sicily, among 
936,267 inhabitants, 198,550 men from fifteen to 
fifty years of age, capable of bearing arms ; the 
property fixed and chattel was valued at 36,285,000 
scudi*. Had they then sought to take part in 
general affairs, they would have been at least 
numerous and wealthy enough to obtain a certain 
weight. 

But we do not find that they had any thoughts 
of the kind. They had contrived means to belong 
to the Spanish monarchy, and yet not to be par- 
takers in its burthens and exertions. They made 
it their business to guard their rights against the 
encroachments of the government ; and they were 
sufficiently occupied with their insular disputes, 
with the discords that had long subsisted between 
the leading families, between the towns, and be- 
tween the nobles and the communes. The general 
interest claimed but little of their regard. They 
were always in arms; but never in the field, never 
in war f. 

It is only such endeavours as have some gen ;ra' 
interest for their object that can elevate the mind 
and fill it with high thoughts. Partial feuds indeed 
keep up an alert activity ; but as they compel men 
to keep in view rather the persons they wish to 
serve or to injure, than principles and a general 
laudable purpose and aim, they undoubtedly weaken 
the cogency of the moral impulse. We are told 
that the character of the Sicilians assumed a greater 
aptitude for subtlety, cunning, and tricks of all 
kinds, than for strength of mind and true wisdom. 

Certain it is, however, that they kept their native 
land safe from the frequently arbitrary measui'es 
of the Spanish ministers, and in a prosperous con- 
dition. They had but little commerce with foreign 
countries. Lucca and Genoa indeed sent them 
silks, Catalonia and Florence cloth ; but silk was 
also wrought in Messina, and the coarse cloth, 
used by the more numerous class, was prepared in 
Sicily itself, and care was taken to restrict the 

* Ragazzoni, Relatione di Sicilia: " L'anno 1530 d'ordine 
del vicere fu fatta la descrittione dell' anime di detta isola di 
Sicilia et l'estimo generale di tutte le facolta et beni dell' 
habitanti d'essa per assegnare ad ogn'uno la sua conveniente 
portione delle gravezze. Et fu trovato "— what is above 
stated. 

t Ragazzoni: " Sono feroci et pronti d'ingegno, ma se 
bene sono rissosi tra loro et ogn'uno porti l'armi, non si pero 
dilettano d'andar alia guerra, ne volentieri escono della sua 
patria, il che procede dalla fertilita del paese, dove stanno 
molto commodi et agiati." Scipio di Castro, Avvertimenti 
respecting Sicily. 



106 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



privileges even of Catalonia, though so closely con- 
nected with the island. The importation of the 
country was amply counterpoised by the exporta- 
tion of corn. The king never received more than 
moderate dues from the province, which was in 
every respect very tenacious of its own interests *. 
Thus, though the Sicilians did not enter on a new 
and improved career, still their constitution had 
this good effect, that they remained in the condition 
bequeathed them from former ages. 

Milan. 

Milan on the other hand displayed a new deve- 
lopment of the national mind. The people of 
Lombardy have always preceded other races of 
men in working out municipal principles, and of all 
the men of Lombardy the Milanese have ever been 
the foremost in this respect. If the new achieve- 
ments they now made in this way were not to be 
compared, for intrinsic value and vast results, with 
what they had previously done, still they are very 
deserving of our attention. 

We will first take notice of the nobles, and next 
of the burghers. 

The Milanese nobles were remarkable for their 
wealth. Not that there were absolutely many 
families possessed of extraordinary incomes ; only 
some few were counted which had between 10,000 
and 30,000 ducats yearly. About the year 1600 
the incomes of the Medici of Marignano, and of the 
Sforza of Caravaggio, were estimated at 12,000 
ducats, those of the Borromei at 15,000, those of 
the Trivulzj at 20,000, and those of the Serbelloni 
at 30,000. But, on the other hand, there was an 
enormous number of houses with incomes ranging 
from 2000 to 4000 ducats f. Now these nobles who 
kept aloof from all traffic, and who had no public 
employments to occupy their time, sought satisfac- 
tion in good cheer and gaiety. They had none of 
the ambitious craving for titles of the Neapolitans, 
but liked to be left to enjoy themselves quietly in 
their own way. They were to be seen daily in 
great troops in the streets, mounted on war chargers, 
or on the swift ginnetto, or on mules with velvet 
trappings. The carriages, adorned with gold and 
richly lined, were left to the use of the ladies. 
Nothing could be more splendid than the Milanese 
carnival. But on other occasions too, how rich and 
beautiful were the dresses worn, what brilliant 
arms were to be seen, what fine horses, what fre- 

* Ragazzoni: "Vi si pesca il corallo a Trapani, et v'e 
bestiame assai. Vi si fanno alcuni panni grossi di lana et 
servono per vestito delli contadini. Gl'altri panni piu fini 
vengono condotti in Sicilia da Catalogna di Spagna, et molta 
quantita di saje da Fiorenza et panni di seta, oltre di quelli 
che si fanno da Genova et da Lucca, et vi si traffica assai 
massime in Palermo per rispetto del negotio frumentario." 
The fair of Lentini served particularly for the home trade. 
Marii Aretii Siciliae Chorographia, written in May 1537, 
p. 17. 

t These details are from a relatione di tutti li stati signori 
et principi d'ltalia, MS. With a slight deviation Leoni 
entirely agrees with it. " E rippena (la citta)" he says " di 
molta nobilta, conservata tutta via da quei cavalieri con 
splendore et magnificenza. E ricchissima, ma di richezze 
piu tosto communicate in molti che raccolte in pochi, perche 
non sono sopra tre o quattro quelle famiglie che giungono 
alii 25 o 30,000 scudi d'entrate et pochissime quelle da x mila. 
Nondimeno di due, ditre et quattro mila scudi di rendita ve 
ne sono infinite." 



quent festivities ! The tone of society derived, as it 
well might, peculiar fascination and liveliness from 
the intercourse of the two sexes *. 

All the arts that have reference to knightly 
exercises and social grace, were peculiarly culti- 
vated in Milan. The art of fence was already per- 
fected in all its modern movements, in its whole 
tactics. The dance was nowhere in higher vogue. 
Not only was a kind of glory won by individuals 
among the dancers, such as that Pompeo Diobono, 
who had also the reputation of being a perfectly 
handsome man, but upwards of a hundred cava- 
liers, and as many ladies, are recorded by name as 
perfect proficients in this art. The Milanese com- 
bined the two arts together to form the ingenious 
sword dance. A place where reigned such a spirit 
of pleasure was favourable ground for the theatre. 
The opera presented itself in its early stage in the 
intermezzos, in 1590, though at first it was thought 
very unnatural to represent Pluto as singing. 
How much the pious Borromeo accomplished here, 
it is hard to say ; but we are not inclined to think 
it was very much, when we look at the names then 
in use on the stage, and find among them Ersilias, 
Aurelias, Violantes, and so forth, borrowed from 
fable or from antiquity, but few names that remind 
us of saintly and Christian virtues f. 

A character of such a cast gave Milan a certain 
influence in the world. We find Milanese at the 
courts of Fr-ance, Spain, Lorraine, and Savoy, as 
masters in the various accomplishments of the 
cavalier. Milan is to be looked on as a centre for 
the corporeal training of the European nobility. 

It possessed another source of influence in the 
inventions and useful arts, which issued from it 
over the whole world. These are to be ascribed to 
the burgher class J. The mechanical arts were 
plied with extraordinary and masterly skill in 
Milan. Whoever wished for handsome armour and 
weapons, or rare embroidery, never thought of 
searching further, if he could not find them in 
Milan. The senate was assiduous in its endeavours 
to attach manufactures closely to the city. There 
is extant a decree to the effect, that no one who 
wrought in wool, particularly no one who under- 
stood dyeing in scarlet, whether master, j ourneyman, 
or even apprentice, should leave the city without 
special permission, and that no one should attempt 
to seduce them away on pain of forfeiting all he 
possessed §. Trade flourished also in Como. Two 
thousand bales of wool were imported thither in 
the year 1580, two-thirds Spanish, one-third Ger- 
man, and the quantity of cloth made from it was 
such as to realize 250,000 scudi. Silk-works were 

* A classical authority on this head is one of Bandello's 
novels, il secondo volume novella quarta, corroborated by the 
Travels of the Due de Rohan, 229. 

t Sketches, illustrated by engravings, chiefly from a work 
by Negri, a Milanese dancing-master, "Le grazie d'amore," 
in Verri, Storia di Milano, ii. 336. 

% Leoni: "Lericchezze delli cittadini non nobili nascono 
per li traffichi, di che quella citta e copiosa. Ha infinita 
copia di artefici, si che nominar si pud seminario delle arti 
manuali. Et si puo dire inventrice delle pompe et del uso 
del vestire, il che fa con tanta et richezza et bellezza et attil- 
latura che tutte queste cose pare che l'altre citta l'appren- 
dano solamente da lei." 

§ " Crida, che gli artefici di lana et tintoria con grana et 
cremosino non escano dallo stato, 6 Maggio 1554." Ordines 
Senatus Mediolan. p. 49. 



NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES.— NAPLES. 



107 



set up there in 1554, by Pagano Marino, and pros- 
pered well ; and yet Como was not by a great deal 
the most flourishing of the Milanese towns. We 
find it petitioning in the year 1555, that it should 
be allowed the same privileges as to workmanship 
and commerce which were enjoyed by Milan and 
the other towns*. 

A lively activity pervaded the country. The 
customs rose with the progress of manufactures, 
whilst the increasing quantity of cash diminished 
the rate of interest. Canals and roads were laid 
out ; alienated estates were bought back; the poor 
were provided for. The Comaschi built halls for 
their corn market, and appointed ediles. They 
advanced money for the printing of a work upon 
their native nobility ; proposals were made for 
having lectures on the institutions of the country 
delivered thrice a week. Como was more populous 
about the year 1600, than it has ever been since +. 

But the city of Milan was above all flourishing. 
To look at the wide circuit of its walls, and the 
multitude of its houses, says Leoni, one would not 
suppose there could be inhabitants enough for 
them ; but if one had an opportunity of once 
passing in review the enormous multitude of the 
people, he would fancy they could not all have 
dwellings. The city was thought to be, next after 
Naples, the most populous in Italy £. 

Naples. 

If there be no doubt that the maintenance of 
the customary state of things in Sicily, and the 
growth and progress of peculiar social and civil 
habits in Milan, were owing to the independence 
retained by the rural districts or the towns of 
those provinces, in Naples, on the other hand, this 
condition no longer .subsisted. Here the whole sum 
and substance of the government lay in the abso- 
lute authority of the viceroy ; this pervaded the 
whole state from the highest to the lowest grade. 
To form a just conception of the state of things, it 
will be advisable to turn for a moment from general 
views, and look more closely into the individual 
character of some of these viceroys. 

Our Relationi mention but two, with some fulness 
of detail, namely, Mondegar (1575 to 1579), and 
Ossuna (1616 to 1620). The former, who was 
already seventy years of age, held it his first duty 
to provide for his family. He gave one of his sons 
a company of horse, another a company of foot, a 
third rich abbeys. He had a wealthy heiress taken 
with armed force from a convent, and married 
into his house. He contrived also to procure for 
his wife a regular income of 7000 ducats. More- 
over, so full was he of Spanish sosiego, that he 
seemed to be rather a king than a viceroy, and let 
the Neapolitan princes stand uncovered before 
him §. He kept the people in utter subjection. 

* Novelli, Storia di Como, iii. c. 2, 109; 43. Petition of 
the Comaschi, 47, n. 6. 

+ Avvertimenti by Scipio di Castro and Rovelli. 

% The number of inhabitants is illegible in Leoni. A cor- 
rection has been made from 350,000 to 250,000. Respecting 
the condition of the city, see further Leander Alberti's De- 
scriptio Italiae, 681. He mentions a proverb of the day, 
"Qui Italiam reficere totam velit, eum destruere Medio- 
lanum debere." [Whoever would reconstruct all Italy should 
begin by destroying Milan.] 

§ Lippomano, Relatione di Napoli, mentions all this. He 



Arbitrary acts, that would any where else have 
provoked rebellion, such as his invasion of the 
rights of the seggi in Naples, and his innovations 
with respect to the trade in provisions, here pro- 
duced nothing beyond confusion and distress. New 
taxes were paid in obedience to his will and pleasure; 
and when new donatives were granted, those who 
voted could not even have the privilege of sending 
them by their own envoys to the king. Many were 
of opinion that the king might, if he pleased, have 
introduced even the inquisition *. 

If Mondegar's age made him unbending, stern, and 
pertinacious in his arbitrary proceedings, Ossuna 's 
vigorous youth prompted him to rude arrogance 
and extravagant schemes. Such a character was 
calculated to make friends and foes. His friends 
could not sufficiently extol him. "He has sub- 
jected the proceedings of the royal ministers to 
close scrutiny," they said ; " he has put an end to 
the mischievous patronage of the doctors ; he has 
visited the prisons in person, and heard the accused; 
his strictness has put a stop to the daily assassina- 
tions, and rooted out the robbers f." His enemies 
could not sufficiently censure him. "He has suborned 
false witnesses, to strike terror into those from 
whom he wished to extort money ; he has trans- 
formed donations into exactions, and has pardoned 
the greatest crimes for money ; all with the help of 
the Marchesana de Campilatar, his acknowledged 
mistress ; his lust has spared no convent, no 
church J." We may be tempted to hold the praise 
and the blame as equally true ; we cannot acquit 
the duke of arrogance and despotism. 

Nor were most of the other governors free from 
these faults. What a strange ambition possessed 
some of them to annul the acts of their predeces- 
sors. They did not scruple to leave unfinished for- 
tresses begun by the latter, and to build others 
elsewhere. Some desired to become rich, others 
to have a train of dependents, others to win the 
favour of the court. But these are not the motives 
that should actuate the governors of kingdoms. 

The viceroys set the precedent after which the 
whole business of the local administration was 
carried on. As they had the nomination to all 
places, nothing being left the colleges but the right 
of proposing three or four candidates for each, they 
did not employ this prerogative to select the wor- 
thiest out of those proposed, but allowed them to 
outbid each other. Hence, when any man had with 
great cost obtained the place of a counsellor or 
reggente, it followed of course that he strove, by 
all means, to indemnify himself for his expenditure, 
and took presents on his part also. The councillors 
had 600 ducats salary, and yet they amassed wealth. 

adds, however, " E desideroso d'honore con tutto che viva 
piu da privato marchese che da vicere, conoscendo benissimo 
lui et la viceregina ogni suo avantaggio familiare. E ben 
vero che ha causa di sparmiare." 

* Al S* Landi : " E opinione di molti, che se adesso il re 
volesse mettervi l'inquisitione, tanto aborrita da costoro, che 
non haveria molto contrasto." 

t Relatione dell' armata di mare uscita da Napoli per il 
golfo adriatico et del seguito di essa. Inform, ix. MS. "Con 
ingegnose et rigorose pragmatiche togliendo via le risse, 
costioni (questioni) et assassinamenti che giornalmente 
abondavono per tutto questo regno." 

t Memorial y capitulos que dio a su Magestad el reyno 
de Napoles contra el duque de Ossuna. Copied in Daru's 
Histoire de Venise, viii. 178. 



108 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



The same system extended to the subordinate places; 
the secretaries of the vicarie received money from 
the culprits they ought to have punished. The evil 
spread even to the lowest class of servants : to ob- 
tain audience of a councillor it was necessary to 
pay for it in coin to his porter. This wide-spread 
corruption was associated in all classes with pride, 
hardness of heart, and violence of temper *. 

The functionaries regarded their rank as a por- 
tion delegated to them of the supreme authority, 
which they were empowered to use in the name of 
right and law, but in reality for their own advan- 
tage. Accordingly they were seen concluding treaties 
of peace, as it were, with those they were intended 
to punish or to control. The governors in the pro- 
vinces are accused of having permitted gross crimes, 
and even murders, for lucre f. The capitani in the 
towns should have resisted the usurpations of the 
eletti, and these again the encroachments of the 
governors ; but how often did both come to an 
understanding and combine to ruin the towns. The 
inspectors of the fairs were bound to examine the 
weights and measures ; they took money from the 
dealers, and let them do just as they pleased. The 
protomedico sent out commissioners; but if these 
men only saw money, we are told, they gave them- 
selves no concern as to whether the medicines sold 
were spurious or genuine. Promises were given to 
the towns that they should be relieved of the sol- 
diers quartered upon them, if they would pay for 
the relief ; and this was in fact unlawful enough : 
but how shall we characterise the fact, that after 
the money had been received, and the soldiers 
withdrawn, another company was sent in their 
stead a fortnight afterwards ? 

Public offices were regarded as estates, to be 
managed, not only with the greatest profit, but also 
with the utmost economy of expense. The com- 
mandants of the fortresses kept two-thirds fewer 
soldiers than they received pay for. The huomini 
d'armi, whose duties were exclusively those of 
cavalry, hired horses to undergo review, but kept 
none at any other time. The capitani, whose galleys 
should have been in readiness to repel any sudden 
attack, used to hire out their galley-slaves for 
service in the town J. The masters of the mint 
used to clip the silver to such an extent that people 
were obliged to take a gran for a half real. Attor- 
neys and notaries contrived to make suits eternal. 
Justice was a trade ; ambition, avarice, jealousy, 
and the peculiar mania for revenge that actuated 
the people, occasioned monstrous and horrible 
things §. 

In this general state of feeling, what might be 
expected of those whose rights were derived from 
the sword and were personal ? When the barons 
quitted the capital in debt and returned home, they 
enforced every right of theirs, even to barbarity. 
They sold offices at high prices to people who, as 

* Lettera al Cardinal Borgia: "E cosa graride il con- 
siderare le smisurate richezze che molti di essi sono stati 
soliti di accumulare in brevissimo tempo." 

t Lettera: " I governatori accorduti con chi si sia, . . . 
si uccide poi l'inimico impune, facendosi apparire colpevole 
il morto." 

t Al Signor Landi : " La ciurma vien noleggiata da capi- 
tani a mercanti nobili per scaricare navi, per altri servitii 
domestici. 

§ A Landi: "Cose monstruosamente scandalose." All 
accounts agree in this. 



Lippomano says, flayed their vassals alive. They 
converted their territories into close states, and 
obliged the dealers who drove their cattle from 
market to market to purchase safe conducts at an 
immoderate sum per head of cattle *. They per- 
mitted no inns on the roads but such as were leased 
from themselves at exorbitant rates, so that the 
landlords, like the proprietors, were forced to in- 
demnify themselves by cruel extortions upon unfor- 
tunate travellers. And that no one might prosper, 
they bought up the silk and other produce of 
the country, and shut their subjects out from 
trade. 

We are already aware that the clergy pursued 
the same course, that they shut the seminaries 
against those who had no means; that they ma- 
naged the hospitals and lending houses, which 
should have benefited the poor, in a dishonest 
manner, and that they took illegal fees for every 
act and decree. 

Does it not seem as though all these functionaries, 
nobles, and clergy were enemies who had conquered 
the land, and won the right perpetually to suck out 
its substance ? 

They let each other feel their violence and harsh- 
ness, but the main force of these fell on the unfor- 
tunate people, which was burthened besides with 
exorbitant taxation. With what keenness were the 
state debtors followed up ! How often, when a 
poor man had earned his real and half by his day's 
labour with his mattock, and thought to enjoy his 
earnings in the evening with his wife and children, 
did a soldier enter his door, whom he could barely 
satisfy with the whole of his scanty pittance. If 
he had no money, they sold all within his house. 
The poor widow, who had nothing but her bed, 
had it sold from under her. If nothing else could 
be laid hands on, they stripped the very roof from 
the house, and sold the materials *f\ 

The victim of the law was now driven to despe- 
ration, and abandoned his wretched hut. Many 
left their villages and took to the mountains. Re- 
volting against a form of society which contemp- 
tuously violated every principle for which society 
is constituted, they began to wage a war with it 
that filled the land with murder and rapine. 
Sometimes they united together, as for instance 
under that Marco Berardi, of Cosenza J, who com- 
bined the separate bands in a body 1500 strong, 
styled himself king Marco, routed the first Spaniards 
who were sent against him, and could only be 
vanquished by a sort of regular campaign. For 
the most part they acted singly. The name of a 
banished man or outlaw (bandito) became equiva- 
lent with that of assassin. Though more men of 
this kind were sent to the galleys in Naples than in 
all the rest of Italy and Spain put together, still 
the country was filled with them. The towns fell 
into decay; thriving places, like Giovenazzo, became 

* Lettera: " Prendere un passaporto sotto colore di assi- 
curarsi da i furti con la nota del nome et cognome di quelli 
che gli hanno venduti o comprati, e ne esigono cosa esorbi- 
tante per ogni capo di bestiame." 

t Tiepolo. A. Landi. Lippomano: " Fanno scoprire i tetti 
delle case et vendere coppi per pagarsi delle impositioni 
regie, cosa veramente crudele et che induce gli huomini dis- 
peratamente mettersi alia campagna a rubare, dove ne nasce 
che sia tutto il paese pieno di ladri et d'assassini." 

J Parino, Teatro de' Vicere, ii. 255. Thuanus, Hist, 
xxxvi. p. 719. Chiefly Adriani, Storia de suoi tempi, 709. 



NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES.— THE NETHERLANDS. 



109 



almost uninhabited * ; there was no travelling 
through Calabria except in caravans. 

If the re-action against absolute authority in 
Sicily perhaps endangered public morality, but 
preserved the country in its old accustomed condi- 
tion, and in Milan did not perhaps prevent all 
arbitrary conduct, but still rendered some munici- 
pal vigour possible ; in Naples, on the other hand, 
the same absolute authority, enhanced by the tyranny 
of those who wielded it, at once destroyed public 
morality and ruined the country. 

That authority seemed to be exercised in the 
king's interest ; but how could the king's interest 
be promoted in such a manner ? 

The king wished that the land should be profit- 
able to the exchequer ; but this rapacious consti- 
tution consumed its own booty with the voracity of 
the spendthrift. The king desired to have the 
country secure from enemies: but there stood his 
fortresses unfinished, half garrisoned, fitter to entice 
the foe than to repel him ; his galleys lay at the 
mole, but without oars or rowers, soldiers or guns, 
whilst corsairs swarmed about all the coasts. Lastly, 
the king wished to have the land obedient and 
submissive ; but a part of his subjects reverted, as 
we have said, to the condition of nature ; the 
citizens of Naples showed a readiness to insurrection 
upon every slight dearth of bread; the Angevines 
among the nobility still retained the lilies in their 
coats of arms, and brooded over the losses they had 
suffered, and the insults they had endured f. All 
waited only a call to rise in rebellion. 

Thus does despotism counteract its own purposes 
by the means it takes to gain them. A sorry con- 
solation for mankind ! The effect of despotism 
remains, namely, the destruction of virtue and 
prosperity. 

4. The Netherlands. 

So long as the Netherlands defrayed the greater 
part of the expenses of the Spanish empire, Castile 
was exempted from that burthen : the former, 
nevertheless, was in a thriving condition, while the 
latter prospered but ill. But from the time the 
Netherlands revolted, the whole burthen of the 
monarchy fell on Castile. The revolted provinces 
were convulsed and exhausted by the ravages of 
war, yet they speedily rose again in renovated 
vigour ; Castile on the contrary was ruined. 

But these two countries, which had long been so 
closely connected together, stood in many other 
respects in stronger contrast with each other. 

We notice in the Spaniards, as in the Neapoli- 
tans, a decisive tendency to make themselves pub- 
licly prominent, to indulge in brilliant display. 
They long to be knights, to fill offices of state; they 
do not grudge purchasing a certain pomp of ap- 
pearance in the streets, at the cost of penury and 
privation at home. Injuries prompt them to im- 
placable hatred, kindness makes them devoted 
partisans. The men of the Netherlands on the 
other hand are fashioned entirely for the comforts 
of private life. In the first place, the house they 

* Lippomano : " . . . . Perche le terre non dishabitino 
come ne sono alcune et tra l'altre Giovenazzo in Puglia." 

+ Relatione di tutti li stati d'ltalia, MS. " Tutti odiano 
mortalmente gli Spagnoli e perche desiderano novita e perche 
hanno strapazzi e sono fatti mol o soggetti a huomini di 
robba lunga e li loro sudditi contra i signori favcriti." 



occupy must be well filled and furnished with neat 
and cleanly household apparatus of every kind. 
Then they are willing enough to fill some public 
office; but when this has once occurred, they are 
content and retire again to a private station. Their 
chief anxiety as to public affairs is, that they may 
not be troubled in their property by any violation 
of order or arbitrary acts ; they are less disposed 
to factions prompted by personal considerations *. 
The former are more warlike, the latter more 
pacific; the former bold assailants, the latter stout- 
hearted defenders ; the former more intent on 
sudden gain, the latter on the acquisitions of 
patient industry. 

How different were the popular pleasures on 
either side ; — here the horseman charging the bull 
with his lance, or driving him down the narrow 
way from the mountain cliffs to the river, where 
he perishes f ; — there the rhetorical guilds of the 
Flemish towns giving entertainments in which 
they visit each other, dressed in velvet and silk, in 
antique, richly adorned holiday carriages, to hold 
gorgeous spectacles, embodying in sensible imagery 
some wise saw or pregnant maxim. The delight of 
the Flemings was to see oxen roasted whole in the 
market-place, wine gushing from the pipes of the 
fountains, men climbing high poles, and women 
running races for prizes, and many hundred festive 
lanterns burning by night on the high tower of 
Antwerp J. 

If the Spaniards discovered America, conquered 
it, and made booty of its silver, the real advantage 
which consisted in life and activity, industry and 
wealth, devolved upon the Netherlands, particularly 
on the city of Antwerp in the beginning of the six- 
teenth century. 

Our Relationi remark that no country was more 
favourably situated for general commerce. It could 
be reached by sea in one day from England, in 
three from Scotland, in five from Denmark, in ten 
from Spain and Portugal : France and Germany 
were immediately contiguous to it. Antwerp ga- 
thered together the fruits of all these advantages. 
There were about a thousand foreign commercial 
houses in that city about the year 1566, a multi- 
tude of Spaniards who gained more there than they 
could do in their native land, and of Germans. It 
was said that more business was done in Antwerp 
in a month than in Venice in two years, though 
the latter city was still one of the first commercial 
marts. " I grew melancholy," says Marino Cavallo, 
" when I beheld Antwerp, for I saw Venice out- 
done §." The commerce of the city was promoted 

* Description in the Relatione de costumi, richezze, etc. 
" Gli huomini et donne di corpo grande, di carnagione bianca, 
di fattezze delicate, di membri ben proportionati et composti. 
Sono grandissimi mercanti, laboriosi, diligenti, ingegnosi, 
moderati nelT una et nell' altra fortuna, temperati nello 
sdegno, nell' amore di doime et nel desiderio d'haver piacere, 
finalmente humani nel conversare." The author only finds 
fault with their credulity and obstinacy. Cf. Guicciardini, 
p. 57. 

t It is to be remarked, however, that as early as 1555 the 
cortes expressed their disapprobation of the bull fights, 
Petic. 75. 

J Meteren, Niederl&ndische Historien, at the beginning. 

§ Cavallo : " Anversa fa tante faccende di cambi reali et 
socchi, che loro chiamano finanzi (is this the origin of the 
word ?) et d'ogn'altra sorte di mercantie, che in vero mi sono 
attristato vedendole, pensando certissimo che superi questa 
citta." 



110 



THE SPANISH EMPIRE. 



by the lowness of the customs, though both a Bra- 
bantine and a Zealand rate was levied, and it was 
secured by the fortifications undertaken by the 
council. Cavallo calls the city the fountain head 
of trade. 

This is not the place to go into the details of the 
subject. The instructive exposition given of it by 
Luigi Guicciardini, valuable for the light it sheds 
on the affairs of Europe generally in those days, 
has been incorporated in many other sufficiently 
familiar works *. A comparison between that author 
and our manuscripts suggests however one remark, 
which perhaps deserves consideration. 

Though Cavallo had doubtless investigated the 
commerce of the Netherlands as accurately as pos- 
sible, since he pressed upon the Venetians sundry 
counsels founded upon his observations f; though 
Guicciardini, who at first proposed to write only of 
Antwerp, manifests by the minuteness of his details, 
how well he was acquainted with the affairs of that 
city (his book was dedicated to the council of 
Antwerp), so that nothing can be objected to the 
testimony either of the one or the other, still their 
statements are very different from each other. This 
can only be explained from the circumstance, that 
the former author wrote in 1550, the latter in 1566. 
Precisely between these two years was the period 
of the highest prosperity ever enjoyed by the trade 
of Antwerp. Even though the facts put forward 
by our authors should prove now and then not to 
be quite accurate, still it is easy to conceive how 
important a collation of the two must be towards 
obtaining some general notions of the course and 
value of this trade. 

Its progress thus estimated appears really won- 
derful. There was imported from Portugal in the 
year 1550, 300,000 ducats' worth of jewels, grocery, 
and sugar. The consumption of colonial produce 
increased to such a degree, that in 1566 the value 
of the sugar and grocery alone imported from 
Lisbon amounted to 1,600,000 ducats. There was 
brought from Italy in 1550 1,000,000, and sixteen 
years afterwards 3,000,000 ducats' worth of raw 
and manufactured silk, camlet, and cloth of gold. 
The importation from the Baltic countries gene- 
rally, comprising corn, flax, and wood, amounted in 
1550 to 250,000 ducats ; and in 1566 the single 
item of corn was valued at upwards of a million 
and a half. Whereas the total value of the imports 
from France and Germany together was computed 
in 1550 at 800,000 ducats, that of French wine 
alone was reckoned at a million of ecus in 1566, 
and that of Rhenish wine at a million and a half of 
ducats. Bruges received in 1550 350,000, in 1566 
600,000 ducats' worth of Spanish wool. But the 
English trade had unquestionably taken the greatest 
leap of all. Cavallo valued the whole importation 
from England in his time, tin, wool, and cloth, at 
300,000 ducats : Guicciardini, on the other hand, 
valued the wool at 250,000, and the cloth and stuffs 
at more than 5,000,000 of ducats, a startling fact if 
it be admitted, as commonly supposed, that the art 

* Giucciardini, Descriptio Belgii, 158—245. Anderson's 
History of Commerce, vol. iv. p. 61. Bor, too, Nederl. 
Oorlogen, has his " Beschryvinge der Stad van Antwerpen," 
as he says, " uit de Beschryvinge vanLudewijk Guicciardini 
Edelman van Florencen," p. 67. 

t Cavallo : " Crederei che il medesimo potesse fare la 
Serenita Vostra con gran utile suo et de suoi sudditi." 



of cloth making was first carried into England by 
Flemish refugees. According to this, the Spanish 
trade with the Netherlands must have been almost 
doubled, the Portuguese, French, and German 
certainly trebled, whilst the English must have 
increased twenty-fold, a fact seemingly well nigh 
incredible. In truth, the Flemish traders in London 
had advanced within a space of forty years from 
their crockery and brush stalls to the most sump- 
tuous warehouses stored with all the commodities 
of the world *. Whilst Cavallo sets down the silken 
stuffs, the spices, and all the other articles ex- 
ported to England in 1550, at half a million, Guic- 
ciardini values the total traffic of both countries, in 
1566, at twelve millions. This explains why Eliza- 
beth was forced to keep on friendly terms with 
Philip before the revolt of the Netherlands, and 
with the provinces after that event. 

But Antwerp was not alone in its prosperity. 
What Cavallo extols above all is the fact that in- 
dustry throve throughout the whole land. Cour- 
tray, Tournay, and Lille, were chiefly engaged in 
the manufacture of cloth ; camlet was wrought in 
Valenciennes ; table cloths in Douayf ; handsome 
carpets were manufactured in Brussels. Holland 
derived profit not only from its cattle, but also from 
its flax ; Zealand yielded at least salt fish. The net 
proceeds from all these sources amounted yearly to 
a million of ducats. The consequence was that the 
whole land was filled with trade and plenty, that 
no one was so low or so incapable but that he was 
wealthy in proportion to his station J. 

Now, whilst commerce promoted manufacturing 
industry, the improvement of the latter became 
associated with the fine arts. Nothing more excited 
Soriano's admiration than the Flemish carpets. 
Herein, he said, was exemplified what practised 
skill could accomplish: as the masters who work in 
mosaic can produce pictures of objects with little 
pieces of stone, so here the work put together with 
woollen and silken threads, is not only made to 
exhibit colour, but also light and shade, and to 
display figures in as perfect relief as the best pain- 
ters could produce §. But the cultivation of the 
fine arts was not merely of this indirect kind ; it 
was also direct, as every one knows. 

But how transient is human fortune. The civil 
wars ensued, devastating the land and bringing 
sack and pillage on the towns, on Antwerp with 
the rest. When Guicciardini published a second 
edition of his work in 1580, he added the remark, 
that the present times were to those he described 
as night to day. Subsequently, after the conquest 
by the prince of Parma, Antwerp never could re- 
gain its old prosperity. It was reduced in the 
beginning of the seventeenth century from a popu- 
lation of certainly 150,000 inhabitants to somewhere 
about half that number |[. 

Were these the consequences of a war which the 

* Wheeler quoted by Anderson, iv. 68. 

t Cavallo. " Li mantili et tovaglie a Benoani ;" in another 
copy, " Duoas," no doubt Douay. 

I Cavallo : "In ogni luogo corrono tanto i danari et tanto 
il spacciamento d'ogni cosa, che non vi e huomo, per basso 
et inerte che sia, che per il suo grado non sia ricco." Soriano : 
" Traffichi et industria porta continuamente in quelli paesi 
le richezze dell' altre parti del mondo." 

§ Soriano: "Mostrando i rilevi delle figure con quella 
misura insieme che sanno fare i piu eccelenti pittori." 

|| Contarini gives the numbers 170,000 and 80,000. 



NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES.— THE NETHERLANDS. 



Ill 



country had undertaken with so much justice, and 
upon so many urgent motives ? 

The fact is so ; all the results of that war were 
not fortunate. The division in religion, manners, 
and language, which is to this moment visible 
between two countries so nearly allied, was un- 
doubtedly created by that cause. Commerce how- 
ever, industry, trade, and active habits of life, were 
not put down by it ; they found an asylum in 
Holland. Amsterdam took the place of Antwerp. 

If we ask how this occurred, let us remember 
that the prince of Parma conquered the soil indeed, 
but not the men. These fled before him, whether 
actuated by solicitude for their religion, or for the 
remnant of their wealth, or impelled by the fear 
of want *. It was chiefly the emigration of the 
active classes that transplanted commerce to Am- 
sterdam, and gave its already rising trade so sudden 
and vigorous an impulse that it became the first in 
Europe. 

Holland made the products of all the world 
tributary to its wealth. First of all it made itself 
the medium for the exchange of the necessaries of 
life between the eastern and western coasts of the 
neighbouring seas, of the wood and corn of the one, 
with the salt and wine of the other +. It sent out 
its ships to the herring fisheries of the northern 
waters, and conveyed the cargoes taken to the 
mouths of all the rivers flowing through southern 
lands from the Vistula to the Seine. The Rhine, 
the Maas, and the Scheldt, carried this article 
through their own territories J. They sailed to 
Cyprus for wool, to Naples for silk § ; and the coasts 
of the ancient Phenicians paid tribute to the com- 
mercial enterprises of so far remote a Germanic 
race, whose abodes they themselves had hardly 
ever reached. Vast stocks of the various articles 
of trade were now collected by the Dutch. Conta- 
rini found 100,000 sacks of good wheat, and as 
much other corn in their granaries in 1610, and 
Raleigh asserts that they were always provided 
with 700,000 quarters of corn, so that they could 
even assist their neighbours in any pressing occa- 
sion of scarcity, of course not without considerable 
profit : one year of bad harvest was worth to them 
seven good years. Nor did they by any means 
confine themselves to dealing in raw produce, but 
even made it an important part of their business to 
apply their own skill to the wrought produce of 

* Hugo Grotius, Historia, p. 85. Proof of this is given in 
John de Wit's Maxims of Holland. 

t Sir Walter Raleigh's detailed essay on the English trade 
with Holland, Anderson, p. 361. Discorso intorno la guerra 
di Fiandra in Tesoro Politico, iii. p. 323, enumerates as arti- 
cles of the eastern trade, " formento, cenere, mele, cera, 
tele, funi, pece, legno, ferro ;" and as Spanish, " salo, lane, 
zuccari et le drogherie dell' Indie," before the Dutch naviga- 
tion to India. 

t Contarini remarks, " De danari cavati da questo pesce 
(aringa) si servono a lor bisogni et a mantener le guerre." 

§ Contarini : " A Cipro et Soria fecero bene et sono andati 
molti per lane et cottoni sperando trarne grand utile." 



other countries. They imported about 80,000 pieces 
of cloth every year from England, but in the undyed 
state ; these they prepared for use, and so realized 
the larger profit in the sale. 

Whilst they had thus so great a portion of 
European commerce in their hands, their most 
splendid profits, as well as the true renown of their 
shipping, were connected with the East Indies. Of 
all their hostilities against Spain, their expedi- 
tions to the Indies were what most alarmed the 
king and the nation, struck them the severest 
blow, and gave the most potent impulse to the 
energies of the Dutch themselves. Contarini re- 
gards with wonder the regularity with which they 
yearly dispatched thither from ten to fourteen 
ships : he states the capital of the company to have 
been 6,600,000 gulden. The grand and world- 
embracing spirit of exertion that animated them, 
led them ever onwards ; their ships sailed even in 
search of unknown lands. Their efforts to dis- 
cover a north-west passage, and the voyages of 
their Heemskerke, cast the maritime renown of 
other nations completely into the shade *, 

Every harbour, bight, and bay of Holland were 
then seen swarming with ships, every canal in the 
interior covered with boats. It was a common 
significant saying, that there were as many living 
there on the water as on the land. There were 
reckoned 200 large ships, and 3000 of middle size, 
the chief station of which was at Amsterdam. 
Close by the town rose their thick dark forest of 
masts. 

Amsterdam prospered uncommonly under these 
circumstances. It was twice considerably enlarged 
within thirty years. Six hundred new houses are 
said to have been built there in the year 1601 f. 

A scudo, says Contarini, was paid for as much 
ground as a foot could cover J. He reckons 50,000 
inhabitants in the year 1610. 

Manufactures flourished; the goods wrought by 
the Dutch were excellent. The rich continued 
moderate and frugal in their habits; many a man 
who sold the finest cloth, was content himself 
with coarse clothing ; the poor had the means of 
subsistence ; the idle were punished. It became 
a common thing to set off for India, and the sea- 
men learned to sail with every wind. Every house 
was a school of navigation ; there was none with- 
out sea charts. Were they men to give way before 
a foe, they who had so wholly mastered the sea ? 
The Dutch ships had the reputation of rather 
burning than surrendering. 

* Bentivoglio : " Relatione delle provincie unite di Fiandra, 
MS. in Berlin, but printed in 1601 by Ericius Puteanus, in 
the Relationi del Cardinal Bentivoglio, edit. 1667, p. 17. 

t Isaac Pontanus in Laet, Belgium Confcederatum, p. 63. 

J Contarini : " II terreno per il concorso e prezzato assai e 
pagato di quanto si puo coprire con un piede un scudo." 
What follows is from Contarini and Bentivoglio. See the 
somewhat later remarks of Sir William Temple, Remarques 
sur l'etat des Provinces Unies, p. 217. 



112 



LIST 

OF THE MORE IMPORTANT MANUSCRIPTS CONSULTED FOR THIS WORK. 



Ottoman Empire. 

1. Relatione di Constantinopoli del Cl mo Signor 
Bernardo Navagero. MSS. Gothana, n. 218. 
30 leaves. 1553. 

2. Relatione del Cl ra0 Marc Antonio Barbaro ritor- 
nato bailo a Constantinopoli da Sultan Selira 
imperatore de Turchi. MSS. Goth. n. 218. 
66 leaves. 1573. 

3. Relatione del Cl m0 M. A. Barbaro alia Ser m a 
Signoria di Venetia delli negotii trattati da lui 
con Turchi. Informationi politiche, t. i. (MSS. 
Berol. Ital. n. 2.) 1573. 

4. Discorso sopra il imperio del Turco (see p. 12) 
Inf. ix. 10 leaves. 1579. 

5. Descrittione dell' imperio turchesco fatta dal 
capitan Pompeo Floriani [a Nostro Sign. Cle- 
mente VIII.] Inf. torn. xvii. 63 leaves. 1579. 

6. Relatione o diario del viaggio fatto in Constan- 
tinopoli del Cl m0 Giacomo Soranzo am re della 
Ser ma Rep. di Venetia per il ritaglio di Mehemet 
figliuolo d'Amurath imperatore de Turchi l'anno 
1551. Inf. i. 54 leaves. 1581. 

7. Constantinopoli del 1584. Sommario della re- 
latione di Constantinopoli dell' IU mo Signor Gio- 
vanni Francesco Morosini, hora cardinale. MSS. 
Goth. n. 218. 39 leaves. 1584. 

8. Relatione di Constantinopoli e gran Turco, dove 
si ha intiera notitia del governo politico e de 
costumi e religione de Turchi. Inf. torn. xi. 
68 leaves. 1590. 

9. Relatione di Mons. Pietro Cedolini vescovo di 
Lesina del presente stato dell' imperio turchesco. 
Inf. i. 16 leaves. 1594. 

10. Relatione dello stato nel quale si ritrova il 
governo dell' imperio turchesco quest' anno 
1594. Inf. i. 33 leaves. 1594. 

11. Relatione di Constantinopoli dell' Ul m0 M r 
Christofano Valieri ritornato da quel bailaggio. 
Inf. xlvi. 118 leaves. 1617. 

12. Relatione di Constantinopoli nell' anno 1637- 
Inf. xi. 53 leaves. 1637. 

II. The Spanish Empire. 

1. Relatione riferita nel consiglio de Pregadi per il 
Cl mo Gasparo Contarini, ritornato ambasciatore 
da papa Clemente et dall' imperatore Carlo V. 
l'anno 1530. Inf. xxv. 16 leaves. 1530. 

2. Relatione del Cl m0 Nicolb Tiepolo del convento 
di Nizza anno 1538. 58 leaves. 1538. 

3. Relatione del Cl mo Monsignore Marino Cavallo 
tornato ambasciatore dall' imperatore Carlo V. 
Informat. ix. 34 leaves. 1550. 

4. Ordine della casa dell' imperatore. Inf. xvii. 

5. Avvertimenti di Carlo V. al re Filippo suo 
figliuolo. Inf. xlvi. 126 leaves. Dubious. 1555. 

6. Relatione del Cl m0 M. Gio. Micheli ritornato 
ambasc. alia regina d'Inghilterra (Mary, the wife 



of Philip II.) l'anno 1557. MSS. Gothana, n. 
217- 77 leaves. 1557- 

7. Relatione di Spagna del cavallero Michele 
Soriano ambasciatore al re Filippo. MSS. Goth, 
n. 218. 75 leaves. 1559. 

8. Lettera di Monsignor di Terracina nunzio di 
papa Pio IV. appresso il re catolica. Toledo, 
22 Majo 1560. Inf. v. 23 leaves. 1560. 

9. Sommario di tutte Pentrate e spese particolari di 
Sua Maesta catolica. MSS. Goth. 218. 7 leaves. 

10. Relatione del clarissimo M. Antonio Tiepolo 
tornato ambasciatore del catolico re Filippo del 
1567 : a di d'Ottobre. Informat. i. 67 leaves. 
Also MSS. Gothana, 219. 1567- 

11. Sommario dell' ordine che si tiene alia corte di 
Spagna circa il govemo delli stati del re catolico. 
Inf. ix. 7 leaves. 1570. 

12. Relatione in forma di discorso de costumi, 
ricchezze, forze, qualita, sito e modo di governo 
delli paesi bassi. D'incerto autore. Inf. xi. 
22 leaves. 1573. 

13. Relatione del Cl mo M. Girolamo Lippomani 
ritornato di Napoli ambasciatore al Serenissimo 
Signore Giovanni d'Austria l'anno 1575. Inf. 
torn. xxxv. 90 leaves. 1575. 

14. Relatione del magnifico Signore Placido Bagaz- 
zoni ritornato agente per la Ser ma Signoria nel 
regno di Sicilia. MSS. Goth. 219. 15 leaves. 

1575. 

15. Relatione compendiosa della negotiation e di 
Monsignor Sega vescovo della Ripa e di poi di 
Piacenza nella corte del re catolico. Inf. xxviii. 
70 leaves. 1577- 

16. Compendio degli stati et governi della Fiandra 
nel tempo del re Filippo, 1578. Inf. i. 20 
leaves. 1 579. 

17- Nota di tutti li titolati di Spagna con le loro 
casate e rendite che tengono, dove hanno li loro 
stati et habitationi, di tutti gli arcivescovati e 
vescovati e entrate e cosi delli visconti, adelan- 
tadi, almiranti e priori, fatta nel 1581 alii 30 di 
Maggio. Inf. xv. 18 leaves. 1581. 

18. Relatione delli negotii trattati in Spagna di 
Monsignor di Piacenza quando fu rimandato al re 
da Gregorio XIII. Inf. xxviii. 10 leaves. 1583. 

19. Avvertimenti e ricordi al Signor Duca di Terra- 
nuova govemator dello stato di Milano e capitano 
generate per S. M. Catolica in Italia. Inf. xi. 
29 leaves. 1583. 

20. Cause per le quali la Fiandra tumultuo, 1586. 
MSS. Italica Berolin. n. 49. 42 leaves. 1586. 

21. Relatione di Milano e suo stato fatta nell' anno 
1589 dal Signor Giov. Batt. Leoni al Ser mo Duca 
di Ferrara. Inf. xi. 48 leaves. 1589. 

22. Relatione del Cl m0 Tomaso Contarini ritornato 
ambasciatore di Spagna, 1593. Inform, xii. 
37 leaves. 1593. 

23. Al Rey nuestro Sefior : signed Juan de Velasco 
Condestable. Milan, July 1, 1597- Spanish. 
Inf. xxix. 73 leaves. 1597- 



LIST OF MANUSCRIPTS. 



113 



24. Ragionamento del re Don Filippo negli ultimi 
giorni di sua vita al principe suo figliuolo. Inf. 
xlvi. 52 leaves. Dubious. 1598. 

25. Relatione della vita del re di Spagna e delli 
privati. Inf. ix. 27 very closely written leaves. 
1604. 

26. Alia Santita di Nostro Signore Paolo V. Re- 
specting Naples. Inf. xx. 34 leaves. 1607- 

27- Relatione fatta dall' Ill m0 Tomaso Contarini. 
On the Netherlands. Inf. xi. 9 leaves. 1610. 

28. Relatione delle cose di maggior consideratione 
in tutta la corte di Spagna fatto nell' anno di 
1611. Informat. ix. 65 leaves. 1611. 

29. Relatione dell' armata di mare uscita di Napoli 
per il golfo Adriatico e del seguito di essa. Also 



respecting Ossuna's administration. Inf. ix. 
12 leaves. 1617. 

30. Lettera scritta all' Ulustrissimo e Reverend" 10 
Signore Cardinale Borgia, in Ragguaglio del 
modo col quale si deve governare nella sua ca- 
rica di vicere di Napoli, l'anno 1620. Inf. xx. 
14 leaves. 1620. 

31. Cagioni che condussero la Santita di N. S. Papa 
Gregorio XV. a levare la nuntiatura di Spagna a 
M. di Sangro. Inf. xxiv. 18 leaves. 1628. 

32. Relatione di Spagna fatta dall' Ecc mo Sign or 
Leonardo Moro ambasciatore della Republica 
appresso la Maesta catolica. MS. in the author's 
possession. 53 leaves. 1629. 



THE END. 



Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square. London. 



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